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BY 



W. SCHRIEVER. 



RICHLAND, IOWA. 

CLARION JOB PRINT. 

1888. 



Equal Chances. 



BY 

\V. SCHRIEVER. 



*l 




W. ScBBIEVEB. PUBLISHES,, 

EICHLAND. IOWA. 

IMP. 



HH 






Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1887, by ' 

W. SCHRTEVER, 
tti©. Office o£ the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C. 
All-Bights Reserved- 



'CHATTER T. 

SOMETHING WRONG. 

'It requires no great mental effort to perceive, that 
there is something radically wrong' in our political and 
economic affairs. From the most ancient times until 
the most recent, the political machinery of all states has 
not shown that ease and steadiness of motion, which 
characterize a perfect machine, but violent friction, 
civil and external wars, uprisings of the lower classes 
against the higher, and temporary anarchy recorded in 
history are evidences that it has been and is now far 
from being perfect. It would be a waste of time to gO 
into details, proving such state of affairs in ancient 
times. Let the past bury its dead, we cannot revive 
them or change it, but, we may change present and 
future. 

In modern times we find the same friction, we have' 
civil and external wars, we find the lower classes con- 
stantly in arms against the higher, occasionally anarchy 
to a greater or less extent, inequality in the distribution 
of wealth, well-filled poorhouses, increase of nervous 
diseases and aberration of mind, corruption in the tran- 
saction of our public affairs and many more evils too 
numerous to mention. While the machine may run a 



4 EQUAL CHANCES. 

little easier, than it did in olden times, it is yet far from 
being perfect A deep-seated feeling of dissatisfaction 
pervades the world, which is expressed in various ways, 
as in the brutality of a French Communistic mob, in the 
bloody deeds of Russian Nihilists, the intrigues of Gci- 
man Socialists and Communists, the ferocity of Chi- 
cago Anarchists and the attempts of the Knights of 
Labor to improve their condition by thousands of strikes 
or arbitrations. The war against oppression, which 
began when the world was first inhabited, is still carried 
on and will last as long as oppression is attempted. 

Until lately it has been our boast, that no necessity 
for violent outbreaks exists in the United States. We 
pointed with pride to our inexhaustible resources, agri- 
cultural, mineral, commercial, at our free institutions, 
which allow every citizen to right every political or 
social wrong by the free use of the ballot, and yet we 
have learned by bitter experience, that even this country, 
with all its greatness, with all its material and intellectual 
progress, cannot evade the common fate of other coun- 
tries, that even we, though in possession of all facilities 
for happiness and contentment, are to-day in a state 
bordering on revolution, which a spark may produce, 
in the efforts of the lower classes against the higher, the 
poor against the rich. The bloody scenes in Pittsburgh 
and other places in 1877, the strikes on the South- 
western system, and the riots in Milwaukee and Chicago 
show, that the same dissatisfaction exists here as in other 
parts of the world. 

We must first know and appreciate this fact in order 
to find a remedy. It will not do to rest in fancied 



EQUAL CHANCES. 5 

security, omitting the proper means to prevent a catas- 
trophy; neither will it do to underrate the danger; we 
might awake to realize our true condition, when it is too 
late to avert the consequences of error without great 
injury to ourselves. Fully comprehending the situation 
we can bend all our faculties of mind to do what must 
be done to banish feverish symptoms from our body 
politic and to restore that quietness and contentment, 
without which health cannot exist and which is a sure 
sign of health and vigor. 

Certainly there is something wrong; we, meaning the 
whole human race, are suffering from a disease. This 
fact being known and established, we must attempt to 
find a cure for it. Every one will concede, that, where- 
ever disease exists, we find the violation of some Law of 
Nature preceding such disease. What holds good in 
individual physical ailments, applies equally to such of 
a social or political nature. A natural Law has been 
violated, which violation produced upheavals and con- 
vulsions. The results will not cease until their cause 
has been removed, when a normal state of health will 
follow. The simple question then presents itself : What 
natural Law have we trespassed upon, that we should 
suffer disease? After having determined this, we must 
try with all the energy of which we are capable, to re- 
move all obstructions to this natural Law, which opera- 
tion will and must insure health. 



6 EQUAL CHANCES. 

CHAPTER II. 

A LAW OF NATURE. 

We find the Law of the Right of the Stronger prevail- 
ing throughout the Universe, the stronger plant absorb- 
ing the natural food of the weaker, either destroying its 
life entirely, or crippling its development, the stronger 
animal feasting on or subjecting the weaker, and we find 
it governing mankind, though in the latter, especially, 
we must recognize two kinds of strength: physical and 
mental, the latter of which, in most cases, sways the 
former. It is a natural Law that the stronger should 
rule the weaker, and every deviation from such a law 
must produce disturbances. 

Man, with all his mental endowments and his haughty 
disdain for animal intelligence, which he erroneously 
terms instinct, found it profitable to be guided by animal 
experience, to imitate creatures below himself. "In 
Union is Strength" was taught us- by different species of 
animals. The bees, for mutual convenience and protec- 
tion, form communistic colonies; wildho'ses, according 
to this principle, keep together in large herds, somehow 
comprehending that the aggregate strength of a larger 
number is superior to the individual power of one or a 
few of their aggressors ; single wolves hardly ever dare 
to attack man, but in packs their courage grows suffi- 
ciently to attempt to satisfy the cravings of hunger. 
Upon the same principle and in conformity with the 
natural Law, our states are formed, opposing the power 
of all the inhabitants of a state to the individual power 
of any one or coalition of them. 



\ 1 . v . 

EQUAL CHANCES. 



In th* 1 intent of this work it is immaterial to show how 
this principle was discovered; it is sufficient for its pur- 
pose to establish the fact, that the knowledge of the law 
and principle referred to were factors in the coalition of 
individuals into states, and that, although seemingly 
.the law is reversed by man, it still prevails. The latter 
seems quite superfluous. Laws of Nature areunchange_ 
able, the existence of the Universe depending on their 
immutability, but for a logical continuation of the argu- 
ment it becomes necessary to point out this natural law 
arid to pjove, that all our laws, to be beneficial must be 
based upon it. 

All human laws depend for their existence and support 
upon a real or imaginary superior power. A supposed 
majority representing superior strength passes them 
over the protest of a minority possessing inferior, 
and the people, bowing to the aggregate strength of 
those favoring the law or of the state, obey them. Real 
or imaginary power curses the enactment and execution 
of our laws; as soon as a majority ceases to support 
any one of them, it either becomes inactive or is re- 
voked. We bend our own willto that of a majority not be- 
cause we choose to do so, but because the majority rep- 
resents a power, which it would be folly to resist. 

The citizen acts the same way in regard to Laws, as 
the child in regard to rules imposed by the parents, 
whether or not he approves of the dictates of those in 
power, he in most cases jbeys them, because if not, he 
may befoxord to do so, or be punished for non-compliance. 
But as soon as the child grows older, as soon as his mind 
and body have sufficiently expanded, to cope success- 



S EQUAL CHA-tfCES, 

fully with his former governor, it Only obeys the 
dictates of his own mind, irrespective of the will of his 
former master. So with States A Colony is subject 
to the laws of the parent state as long as k is in the age 
of childhood, but arrived at maturity, conscious of its- 
superior power, it breaks assunder the chains, which tie 
it to a master; it stand », fully grown, as- strong or 
stronger, than its former oppressor. The United States 
remained in subjection to England as long as the Amer- 
ican Colonies did not regard themselves as sufficiently 
strong to break their ties, but when they awoke to the 
knowledge of their power, they tested it against the 
English armies, demonstrated their superiority and 
gained their freedom. This attempt to attain liberty, if 
unsuccessful, that is not backed by the required physical 
and mental power, would have been termed Rebellion, 
but supported by superior power, and therefore success- 
ful, it became Patriotism. The Right of the Stronger was 
upheld, the weaker was forced to relinguish his claims 
against the stronger. 

That such should be the case, is a Law of Nature, 
which we find ruling in the' vegetable Kingdom, which 
we trace again in the animal, and we find man bowing 
to it in the infancy of mankind, as well as in the most 
advanced stages of enlightment. This Law has caused 
man to create States, it is directly the cause of civiliza- 
tion and refinement, which bless our age. And yet. as 
will be proven, we have violated this Law, to which w: 
owe so much, in consequence of this viola! ion arose 
those disturbances, mentioned in the first chapter, which 
Z"t directly traceable to this transgression. 



EQUAL CHANCES. 9 

CHAPTER III. 

FORMATION OF STATES. 

History teaches, that the occupations of primitive 
Man consisted in Hunting and Fishing, from which he 
derived sustenance, and that to these he later added 
agriculture. From a nomadic life he progressed to the 
first step in civilization. The whole world was at his 
disposal, to select the most desirable place as his home, 
of which he took possession, by the Right of the Stronger, 
and held against contestants, if there were any such, 
but, taking in consideration the existence of a surplus cf 
land, more than enough to supply all, it seems extremely 
improbable, that at thit tim: there should have been 
any contest in regard to land. 

Upon his land and from the fruits of it he raised 1 i> 
family, of which he was the head and governor. In fil- 
ial obedience the children respected the Right of the 
Patriarch to his possessions, and after having become 
older and strong enough to launch out for themselves, 
they left their parental abode, seeking and easily finding 
some other desirable place, or taking possession of the 
homestead, which had become vacant by the death of 
the parents. But after generations had passed away, 
the number of human inhabitants had increased, land 
had become scarcer, consequently more desirable, and 
means had to be devised to present a greater strength, 
than any individual could exert, to successfully meet 
the power of contestants. There was another reason, 
which made a concentration of power desirable and 
necessary. The father, in his youth physically stionger 



JO EQUAL CHANCES, 

i > ...... .^ 

than his neighbors, and therefore able to hold his own 
against them, wished* to preserve his lands and improve 3 
ments to himself in the period ot decreptitnde, and to 
transmit them after his death to his descendents, who in 
childhood certainly, and in later years possibly, were 
less strong than others, and for this reason cculd not 
hope to hold their possessions against the superior indi- 
vidual power of Others, For -these considerations those 
possessing a relative abundance of worldly goods, formed 
a partnership with others, similarly situated, for the pur- 
pose of mutual protection of life and property, pre- 
senting 4.he ^combined power of all the ^partners to any 
one or^mbre of those, who had less property, and there- 
fore a desire to dispossess those having more wealth. 
i Man, imitating the action of lower animals, so origi- 
nated small governments. ■•JJvit, as the number of those 
needing protection increased, as property became more 
valuable, in consequence of increased demand, it be- 
came-. necessary to augment its protection. While in the 
beginning, only the ; members .of one family formed a 
government, to which, later, one or more added their 
pumber and- power, more joined these actuated by the 
same reasons, which moved the first, or were forced to 
join them. As concentration of power facilitated de- 
fense, 'villages were' built, affording ;greater security, and 
even making it possible for a minority to withstand the 
attacks of a larger number, which by steady additions 
grew into large cities. The inhabitants of cities, less by 
inherent' strength, than by the power of organization, 
ruled over smaller states, and at last governed vast em- 
pires, in which the Sun never set. Laws were framed, 



EQUAL CHANCES. II 

privileges and rights conferred for the benefit of the 
possessing class, "governments were instituted among 
men, deriving their just (?) powers from the consent 
(?) of the governed." The latter- were not asked 
whether or not they approved of any law, -but those 
who thought themselves possessed of the powernto en- 
force, it, dictated it to the rest, and by force compelled 
obedience to their dictates. . -m ■■ t 

The fact, that laws were not enacted with the consent 
of the governed, becomes more and more apparent, 
the deeper we enter into ancient history; its pages show 
the most' absurd laws, as well as the most tyrannical, and 
even in modern -times it is well illustrated. Love of 
liberty has. always existed, in the human breast, and yet 
we find laws sanctioning and imposing slavery even in 
the present day, which certainly did not .originate with 
the consent of those enslaved.' Love of .life is certainly 
a trait, which man shares with the aminial,> arid yet we 
find laws to-day, giving ithe- highest boon of man* yes 
the lives of all the subjects. -of Jmighty emperors into the 
latter's hands, to be sacrificed atchis will; 'tthe-se laws 
were certainly not framed with -the consentof those sacri- 
ficed. Every man wishes to preserve 1 his ; property, and 
yet laws were enacted, which laid the proceeds of a 
life's toil at the feet of tyrants, who could appropriate it 
at any time and they were certainly not enacted with the 
consent of those so robbed. 



12 EQUAL CHANCES. 

CHAPTER IV. 

PRIVILEGED CLASSES. 

While it is true, that laws were imposed and privileges 
granted in direct conflict with the best interests and 
without the consent, even in spite of the most energetic 
protests and resistance of those subject to them, it can 
not be denied, that many were passed, which benefitted 
all members of society. To explain this, it must be re- 
membered, that governments were instituted for two dis- 
tinct purposes, namely: Protection of Property and 
Protection of Life. As all human beings in a state of 
health are naturally desirous of preserving life, all laws 
for the prevention or punishment of murder were assur- 
edly in the interest of all, while laws relating to the 
preservation of property were only in the interest of 
property holders and no one else, as those, who owned 
nothing, needed no protection for it. On the contrary, 
laws protecting property injured those possessing noth- 
ing, as they secured to the oldest inhabitants their pos- 
sessions, making it impcbsible for new-comers of acquir- 
ing any property, except with the consent and upon the 
terms of the property holders. 

What made matters worse, was the fact, that ambitious 
men, not satisfied with a reasonable share of wealth or 
equality of honors, strove to dispossess others of all 
that the latter possessed. Banding together, for the pur- 
pose of plunder and reign, a lot of bold adventures, 
they carried death and destruction into peaceful homes, 
either enslaving or killing the original owners, or forcing 
them to flee for their lives from the fury of the assailants. 



EQUAL CHAMPS. 1 3 

The leader would, after the victory had been gained, 
content himself with the lions share of the plunder, re- 
warding his lieutenants with princely estates. These 
conquests were not made by the Right of the Stronger, 
as the conquerors did not represent a greater strength, 
than the aggregate power of the conquered, but only 
gained the day by virtue of their organization, by feroc- 
ity, cruelty, intimidation, treachery and a combination 
of lucky circumstances. The Leader, now having be- 
come a King, in order to secure his possessions and 
those of his followers to himself, his and their descen- 
dants created a halo around himself, he represented 
himself as the envoy and favorite of Deity to rule over 
the world, from God's grace he derived his prerogatives 
and by the power of the victor he imposed laws to 
perpetuate his power and riches. His helpers were 
raised above the rest o( mankind by titles of no- 
bility and royal gifts, armies were created, main- 
tained and drilled in the use of arms, by taxes levied 
upon the conquerred to hold the enslaved population in 
subjection. This is, as History plainly demonstrates, 
the origin of royalty and aristocracy; their thrones and 
titles were founded upon oppression and upheld by 
cruelty and murder. 

Not satisfied with the above enumerated precautions, 
and to more firmly secure their ill-gotten gains, caste.; 
were formed, arranging classes of subjects against others. 
Money became a great factor in the prosecution of wars, 
intended to increase extension of reign, and to divert 
the attention of dissatisfied majorities, to matters foreign 
to the true happiness, liberty and comfort of the people 



14 EQUAL CHANCES. 

For it has always been a trick of tyrants to distract the 
attention iof the nation from its own affairs, which could 
not bear inspection, by appeals to the hatred of other 
nations, to misunderstood and misdirected patriotism, 
and by arousing the brutal* bloodthirsty traits of man. 
This trick is resorted to yet to-day,: as can be shown by 
the History of the most,modern times. For the purpose 
of more firmly planting the 1 throne and of securing it 
permanently to the ruler and his offspring, the aristocracy 
of wealth was upheld and fostered, new laws in its inter- 
est enacted, and those previously existing rigorously en- 
forced. That those laws were not enacted and enforced 
with full knowledge of their effects and with the consent 
of a majority, is clearly proven by the fact, that the 
majority of people in any country are poor, the privi- 
leged few and the first certainly did not, knowingly and 
Willingly, consent and submit to any laws,, condemning 
themselves to hard labor, deprivation and lowliness. 
Civil wars which abounded in all ages show, that the 
massejs were never satisfied with their condition, and 
from present symptoms it is clear, that they are not sat- 
isfied now. iThere certainly were some agencies, which 
caused them to yield riches, luxuries and station to 
others, which they might have possessed themselves. 

We have seen, in whose interest property laws were 
framed and perpetuated, and that their enactors could 
not base their claims upon the right of the stronger, but 
by organization they created the impression of a stronger 
power, than they actually possessed, which they increased 
by cruelty, murder and intimidation; this reign of the 
weak over the stronger, constituted the violation of a 



EQUAL CHANCES. 1 5 



Law of Nature, in consequence of which transgression 
the human family has terribly suffered and is suffering 
at the present time, ■ 

. CHAPTER V, 

PROGRESS, 

Thousands of years' have passed since the human 
family first ; formed states, and this cannot be denied, 
considerable progress' his been in id t toward greater lib- 
erty and happiness of the people: In the civilized parts 
of the world, it is no more in the power of tyrants to 
deprive their subjects of all they hold dearest, Life, 
Liberty and Property, except in cases of wars. There 
are laws existing now-a-days, regulating ^ almost all mat- 
ters, and these laws are even stronger, than the will of a 
haughty sovereigns No more are Pyramids raised to 
testify of the worst form of slavery, but structures are 
being raised continuallv'and cemented bv the life-blood 
of workmen, as mounuments of a milder form. Golden 
chains are substituted for iron chains and they hold the 
captive just as firmly. 

Undoubtedly we have progressed; countless wars and 
insurrections, whether crowned with success or not, ex- 
ercised their influence on mankind. Oceans of blood 
were spilled, Nations appeared on and disappeared from 
the stage of life, all leaving their impression on the sur- 
vivors. All ages had their great men, who by virtue of 
superior power of mind occupied a higher plateau than 
their cotemporaries, to which they raised their fellow- 
men, step by step. The populace may have cried " Cru- 



l6 EQUAL CHANCES, 

cify them ;" those Knights of Intellect may have been 
incarcerated for their pains, they may even have sacri- 
ficed their lives for their temerity to attempt to make 
man better and happier, but if they could revive to-day 
from the slumber of death, if they could but look back 
upon the scene of their thoughts and notice the effect of 
their works on an ennobled world, they would gladly die 
again I Thanks to them, we have made progress, but 
only slowly, considering the almost incomprehensible 
time elapsed, and the great number of noble reformers, 
and what is worse, we have only changed methods; we 
have not abolished oppression, but only changed the 
form and degree of it. 

Oppression still exists, even the most abject form of 
slavery is not entirely banished from our civilization, 
though it is only a matter of a very short time when it 
will have become an institution of the past, to which we 
will look back with incredulity and awe. As in olden 
times, so now the natural law of the right of the stronger 
is violated, so as to allow the weak to rule over the 
stronger. We wish it here distinctly understood, that 
we do not advocate the proposition, which may be right 
or wrong, that Might makes Right, but it cannot be 
questioned, that Might, if properly organized and direct- 
ed, will win the day on all occasions. Slavery in the U. 
S. could be defended by the above principle, as the 
slaves were held in bondage by superior aggregate 
strength, though it can never be right ; our moral per- 
ceptions revolt at the thought, and we have at the pres. 
ent time an overwhelming majority, representing physi. 
cal and mental power, to uphold our dictate, that the 



EQUAL CHANCES. 1 7 

worst form of slavery, holding human beings like cattle 
and lowering them to the level of the animal, shall be no 
more. To-day slavery not only, but every other form 
of oppresssion, is certainly wrong, if it ever was right. 
But we lay down the proposition, that naturally superior 
ability must rule in all cases, wherever the issues are 
fairly represented and the arms clash; yet History and our 
own experience teach, that such seemingly was not always 
the case, that smaller powers frequently vanquished the 
larger. When England subjugated India, the invading 
army was certainly not equal in number to the millions 
of Indians; when Cortez, with his handful of adventur- 
ers entered the populous empire of Mexico; when Jesse 
James, with only a few companions terrorized cities con- 
taining thousands of inhabitants, it was not the inher- 
ent strength of England, Cortez or Jesse James which 
enabled them to do so, but it was a deviation from 
Nature. It would have been natural, that the English 
invaders should have been annihilated, the Spanish ad- 
venturers murdered, and Jesse should have been riddled 
with bullets. Yet it was not so. The English and 
Spanish soldiers, prepared for their bloody work, were 
better equipped and disciplined than their enemies; by 
ferocity, generalship and superiority they gained a few 
victories, thereby intimidating the natives ; by religious 
superstition, the crafty leaders worked upon ignorance, 
divided the masses by creating dissensions in their ranks, 
disorganized the enemy, while their own organization 
was upheld, and by appearing stronger than they were 
in fact, they subjugated those countries contrary to a 
law of Nature. 



l8 EQUAL CHANCES. 

Our privileged classes subjugated the poor masses by 
the same tactics, which England and Spain used in their 
conquests, not by inherent superior strength, but by or- 
ganizing for their especial purposes, by generalship and 
having the superior arms of law on their side; by work- 
ing upon the ignorance and jealousy of the masses; by 
misrepresentation of facts, and by creating the impres- 
sion of superior strength, when, at the same time, they 
possessed the least. The tactics, which gained -Mexico 
to Cortez, and India to England, were equally success- 
ful to allow the privileged classes the greater wealth and 
enjoyment. In olden times, laws were passed in open 
disregard to protests, by mere brute concentrated force ; 
in modern times by misrepresentation of facts, by sub- 
stituting questions ot less import, for such of graver, by 
artificial distinctions in place of natural. Whenever 
laws can be shown to be inimical to the best interests of 
a majority of those governed by them, we hold that 
they have not stood the test of relative strength of advo- 
cates and opponents, but were passed by unnatural 
means, differing in localities and times. If it can be 
shown, which would not be difficult, that wars are not 
in the interest of a majority, and yet we would see that 
majority prosecuting a war, it would be a demonstration 
that mental ability was dimmed by aroused passions, by 
a radically wrong calculation and conception, which are 
at variance with the prosperity and best interests of our 
race. If it can be proven, and we hope to do so in this 
work, that our property laws are opposed to the pros- 
perity of all citizens, whether or not in possession of 
wealth, it ought to be equally c.ear, th.it by some agencies 



EQUAL CHANCES. 1 9 

the people were deceived as to their prosperity, and that 
the majority of citizens, if issues were rightly understood 
and consequences properly foreseen, would not be in 
favor of such laws, that a majority would abolish them, 
as soon as artificial issues are banished, and an unbiased 
opinion of the poorer classes can be obtained. 

In ancient times, when culture and refinement were 
not as predominant as in our day, means to the same 
end were harsher than they now are. While human 
nature is still the same as then, while ambition still de- 
sires to rule with a hand of iron, and sheds tears because 
there are no more worlds to conquer, Man became too 
enlightened to bow to the absolute dictates of tyrants, 
Despotism was forced to give way to Constitutions and 
Republicanism. While religious intolerance rules the 
same in the human breast as in the days of Christ, or in 
those of the Inquisition, Man has advanced too far, to 
delight in crucifixion or the fagots. While human na_ 
ture still craves all luxuries, honors and riches for self, 
the days of open, bold robbery are to a great degree 
past, and the bitter pill of appropriating the fruits of 
somebody else's labor, must be sugar-coated by watering 
stock and exacting high returns for imaginary or partly 
fictitious values. Formerly Knights built castles in 
naturally strong positions, well chosen for their purpose, 
from which they pounced upon travelling merchants to 
compel them to pay tribute; now-a-days large corpora- 
tions, representing millions of capital, band together for 
the purpose of amassing wealth, by plundering consum- 
ers, not by presenting blunderbusses at them, but by 
rings and pools artificially creating and maintaining ex- 



20 EQUAL CHANCES. 

orbitant prices and freight rates, which, without such 
organization, on account of competition could not be 
upheld. Human nature is the same as of old, the ob- 
jects the same, and the result the same, viz. : The im- 
poverishment of the stronger masses, only the means 
through which to obtain their object were changed in 
accordance with the spirit of modern times. 

We find the same Larw of Nature violated now as 
then. What formerly bands of armed men accomplished 
by murder or threat, at the risk of their own lives, is to- 
day effected in an easier and less dangerous manner. 
Brute force, though sometimes resorted to in fights 
among individuals, and the more degrading bloody fig!, 
among nations, had to give way to contests of Intellect 
and Money. If Arbuckle in possession of a surplus of 
millions, invests them in coffee, and makes almost every 
one of the 60,000,000 inhabitants of the U. S., not 
to speak of the rest of the world, tributary to him, we 
hardly find anybody to blame, — we might have done the 
same thing, if we only had the required millions — at the 
same time blessing our stars, that the days of armed 
Knighthood and blunderbusses are over. If Sewing 
Machines, patented in the U. S., sold for $40 to $80 in 
this country, while such made of the same material and 
with the same improvements but not patented in Ger- 
many sold there for about $17, making dozens of men 
in this country millionares, who filched their millions 
from the laboring masses, without having the brains to 
invent those machines, while the genius, who discovered 
the leading principle of the sewing machine dies poor 
and his name almost forgotten, we glory in the new 



-EQTTA-L CHANCES. 21 

•departure of the greatest good to the greatest number 
and that we live in an enlightened age, deploring the 
condition of those poor wretches, who were born cen- 
turies too early for true civilization and happiness. 

When one of the Vandcbilts inherits upon the de- 
mise of his father the trifling sura of $8o,co3,ooo, and 
we read in some paper that there are mortgages upon 
the homes of a majority of the farmers in the Missis- 
sippi Valley, the most beautiful of all sections of this 
country, we applaud some fourth of July orator, who 
slightingly speaks of the economic and political status 
of some European state, and who proudly declaims 
about the self-evident fact that all men are born free 
and equaL 

Yet we ought to be thankful, not to live in those 
times, when men, who honestly differed in opinion from 
those in power, were deprived of their liberty or life, 
(speaking of the U. S.) when slaves were torn by brute 
force from their families; when martyrs suffered untold 
agonies at the stake or in underground vaults. We 
ought to rejoice in the liberty we now enjoy, of using 
our intellect, irrespective of creed or anything else in 
our own interest and that of mankind and of expressing 
our thoughts by word or pen without fear of prison, tor- 
ture or death, to enjoy the privilege of doing our share 
to tear off the veil of ignorance that has dimmed our 
vision and prevented us from seeing the path to our own 
happiness, to equal chances for all. 

To do so it becomes necessary to determine what 
refined means are used in modern times to prevent or 
ma e inactive the will of a majortiy to gain private ends 



2"2f EQUAL CHAN'CES'. 

or those of privileged classes. Let its for this purpose* 
limit our investigations to the United States of North 
America, not because it is expected to be an easier field,, 
but f o : the reason, that America, having the f.eeest gov- 
ernment in the world, the greatest freedom of the pres's r 
and the greatest facilities for the rule of a majority,. 
& ands eminent above all nations, because here, if any- 
where,- the right of a majority or the stronger is theoret- 
ically acknowledged and because any deviation frc.rn 
this p inciple established here, certainly is present 
in a greater degree in stat js of less political advantages. 
If we find, that the laws governing our fellow-citizens 
are not enacted by the stronger power of a majority,, 
that the latter bows to the decrees of a minority, then 
a" least the same deviation, if no' more has been proven 
in all other countries, politically less endowed th..n 

we are. 

i 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE MINORITY RULES. 

Even in the United States the majority of the people 
is not the rutin x power, but a very small minority gov- 
erns our political affairs, and thousands of laws are 
annually enacted, of which those governed by them have 
hardly any knowledge; this is especially true of laws of 
only moderate general interest. But it is also the case 
in regard to aws of the utmost importance, though in a 
less degree, and in the selection of our Chief Magistrate 
the will of the people is frequently set aside. Even in 
Presidential contests, when the excitement is at fever 



ErQUAT- CHANCES. 2 3 

H.ieat, when the bu iness of the whole country is almost 
prostrated and every citizen regards the election of his 
favo.ite candidate as a personal matter of deepest con- 
cern., a few politicians gin the victory over th* plainly 
expressed will of the people. Whatever we may now think 
of Ab. Lincoln, for whom we <mght to have the greatest 
reverence, however we may e'evate him above the rest 
of mankind, classing him among the greatest men of all 
times, the historical fact stares in our faces, that he was, 
at the time of his first nomination, not the choice of the 
people, but only what is vulgarly called a " dark horse." 
The preference of the people at that time was very pro- 
nounced on both sides, and under those circumstances 
both parties had the m st per ect right to have their re- 
spective man submitted to the decision of their ballots, 
but for reasons of expediency a compromise was effect- 
ed, by which a compa atively unknown man, occupying 
an inferior place in the affection of the voters, was 
forced by a minority upon a majority. The same hap- 
pened again in the convention which nominated Gar- 
field, wlvse fortitude in suffering and lamented untimely 
death endeared him to his fellow-citizens and called out 
m :re sympathy and regret than probably any man ever 
before received. In nineteen ballots only two out of 
over three hundred votes appeared in favor of the late 
victorious candidate, showing that the hundreds of dele- 
gates, instructed by the people or knowing its choice, 
were induced, by what means we know not, to abandon 
the choice of the misses and to submit to only two. It 
would be an easy imtter to produce more examples like 
the above, but it is hardly necessary. 



24 EQUAL CHANGES'.- 

While the sprit of our fundamental laws tends to a 
rule of a majority, the ignorance and apathy of the peo- 
ple, the ambition of a few to rule all by means of the 
caucus system, aR d expediency radically prevent 
the intent of those laws- In order to gain their 
especial iavori e purposes a few of the prominent po i- 
titians in ward, town, state or nation hold a consulta-* 
lion. They organize and devise plans arid tucks to 
nomfna'e and elect their candidate. Our n. tional 
statesmen know, that certain states can be surely count- 
ed upon as rep.ib ican, others as d mocratic and firmly 
convinced of this fact, the e states are not worthy of eou- 
skl ration; the doubtfftl states on the contrary must be 
won over by some means to make victory certain. 
New York, then b ing a doubtful state, is bi ibed by giv ng 
her the candidate for the Presidency, while Indiana be- 
ing another doubtful state has the honor to name the 
Vice-President, The na ion at large may have a decid- 
ed preference for o hers on the different sides, excellent 
men, known to be endorsed by their respective paries 
but our few wire-pullers manage to nominate the man of 
their own choice. Then the campaign opens, a major- 
ity of papers, to uphold their party and to keep t leir 
su scription lists fu 1, if for no worse reasons, su denly 
forget the faults of the nominated candidates, which 
they previously frequently exposed; they prase their 
cha acter and political services to the skies, while those 
of the rivals are dragged in the mud; the best orators, 
of which the country can boast, are sent outtohanangue 
the masse , m srepresenting facts giving undue weight 
to trivial or long past issues; political clubs are formed 



EQUAL CHANCES. 25 

to arouse public enthusiasm and thousands of torches 
light up the evening sky. When election day arrives, 
we go to the polls proud y presenting our ballots, every 
man a king, not knowing that we are but playthings in 
the hands of a few schemers. 

After election com s in one of our faulty iaws, that 
re.ating to our electoral commission, which sometimes 
counteracts the will of the people, expres e ! at the polls. 
According to it, every state is entitled to two electors, 
irrespective of majorities. It does not matter whether 
a certain state gives 6 or 60,000 majority for any candi- 
date, that state being in either case only entitled to the 
lega number of electors. So it comes to pass that our 
highest national office is sometimes occupied by one 
who only has a majority of the states, but a minority of 
all the votes cast. A minor ty carries the day over a 
majority and yet we hear the expres ion almost every 
day : • In this country the majority rules." 

The sime circumstances, which prevail in the nomina- 
tion and election of our Presidents are also present in 
those of our law-makers, represen at ves t ) our legisla- 
tures and the nat.onal Congress; while they a e appar- 
ently the choice of a majority, they actually are only 
that of a few ringleaders, and consequently the laws en- 
acted by them are not necessarily the laws, whch the 
people desire. It is a well-known fact, that the expenses 
of a campaign have to be paid to a large extent at least, 
by the candidates for office, and so a man, who is poor 
in purse, but perhaps rich in mind, need not apply for 
nomination; it must be some one rich in purse, but per- 
haps poor in mind, preferably one of those oily speakers 



20 EQUAL CHANCES. 

who be'ieves in Tal eyrands maxim: "That language ws 
mad- to hide thoughts." One, who ha; orig n lity 4 u 
advance new ideas and coura.se andhones'y to proclaim 
them on proper occasions, is sure to make enera es; his 
nomination, though he be by far the best man f ;r the 
p]ace, mig^t result in the defeat cf the party and the 
wrong app ication of the party :-poils, be it ever so much 
in thj interests of his constituents, ~nd therefore his oily 
brother is preferred Sp ech-making is the order of the 
day in our legislative halls, and the honest farmer or 
hard workmg mechanic who very well know, wlier the 
shoe pinches and might express his sentiments in less 
refined language in a bill to his own advan ag? an 1 ad- 
vancement, is not nominated, b it th ;la\vy:r, who e pro- 
fession requires a cu tiv.tion of the gift of gab, starts to 
W shington, although there are thou ands of farmers 
and m.chanics to every iawye . C ass legislation is t e 
consequence, the interests of the poor laborer and 
farmer are neglected, those of the rich or lawyer never. 
Our politicians serve to us what they please in men 
or me:.su es, not what we demand or what is good for 
us, as some hea strong cook might do. There might be 
on the table different dishes, such as the cook would 
choose to present to us. We would have the choice be- 
tween them, but as the food, which we naturally crave 
and which is good for our body is not among them, w r c 
would be forced to abstain from its use. To be sure we 
have a chance to select among men and measures, and 
we generally select those least repugnant to us; but as 
the real great men se'dom, and the really important 
measures the ones best adapted to our needs and hap 



EQUAL CHANCES. 27 

piness are equally seldom presented to us by our polili 
cal cooks, we are deprived of them. 

Under these circumstances it may seem strange, that 
any laws whatever of general benefit should ever have been 
passed; nevertheless it must be conceded that we have 
many such on 0111 statute-books, and the explanation 
for this seeming contradiction is quite simple. Our law- 
makers are sharp enough to know, that the bow when 
strung too hard is liable to break; they appreciate the 
power of the stronger and know where that power rests. 
They can for this reason not have it all their own way, 
but, in order to retain the greater part, must grant the 
smaller, they must make the masses pliable by making 
them believe to be the masters and the actual masters 
appear as the servants of the people. It would not do 
to kill the goose that lays the golden egg! So it is not 
so surprising after all to find a great number of truly 
good laws enacted, benefitting all classes and all people 
and which on account of this fact are approved by all. But 
whenever the interests of the rich and poor clash, the lion';, 
share generally comes to those who are in the place and 
have the power to make laws to their own advantage, 
while the attention of the poor is diverted from real 
issues to false ones, or real issues are unduly magnified 
to obscure more important ones. 

The means to accomplish the ends of the privileged 
and to make the masses pliable in the hands of rulers 
and demagogues differ in different countries. For cen- 
turies the stratagem of the French rulers was based upon 
the love of glory of the French people which was al- 
ways kept at boiling heat. One war followed another, 



28 EQUAL CHANCES. 

the property of the people was squandered in arms, 
forts and ammunition; millions of human beings wild 
with patriotism and ambition, were led as sheep to bat- 
tle-fields satuarated with the gore of the misguided, and 
the object wasreached; Glory was attained, but the 
human heart shudders and the true man despairs of 
humanity contemplating such glory ! In other countries 
other means were used, though war and hatred of other 
nations were the main ones, and all to the same purpose. 
In our own country, politically freer than others and 
not hemmed in on all sides by nations of different views, 
language and interests, other means had to be adopted 
and they proved equally effective. When our great 
Rebellion expired at Appomatox, real issues, the natural 
sequel of the eivil war, presented themselves for adjust- 
ment, but while they were being disposed of there was 
no need of upholding sectional hatred on either side for 
a quarter of a century after the surrender of Lee, no 
need of fighting over again the battles which resulted in 
the downfall of the theory of state rights and the aboli- 
tion of slavery ; clasping hands over the bloody chasm, 
through which flowed the hearts' blood of hundreds of 
thousands of our slain brethren, it would have been 
the part of wisdom to try to heal the wounds, which 
cruel war had inflicted, to re-establish that prosperity 
which it had destroyed. But such a policy did not suit 
the politicians on either side, the minority rulers of our 
country; sectional hatred was welcome to perpetuate 
the power which they held and coveted. Instead of 
conciliating the inimical sections our political orators 
and editors fanned the flame of discord. Had the 



lEQXTA'L CHANCES. 29 

^northern ringleaders nominated civilians who were not 
•as obnoxious to the vanquished South as the victorious 
'Union Generals for the higher national positions, and the 
South elected its Rebel Brigadiers to stay at home, a bet- 
ter feeling would have prevailed and new issues would 
'have taken the place cf those settled long ago by the 
sharp sword of the victor. 

While the war was one of the causes of continued 
estrangement, others of more or less importance were 
wot neglected; one string to hold the masses might 
break, and sometimes the Law of the Right of the 
Stronger asserts itself, tearing ail artificial bonds and 
breaking over all artificial barriers. On the republican as 
well as on the democratic sides issues were unduly mag- 
nified or artificially created, such as the bugbear of re- 
pudiation, ku-kluxism, Protection and Free Trade, and 
all the other questions, which divided the parties. While 
they were enlarged upon by interested speakers, dis- 
cussed in editorial articles of the numerous newspapers 
throughout the land, talked over by the common voters, 
and while they carried a benefitted minority into high 
places, laws were passed and others which ought to have 
been enacted, omitted to pass, making the rich richer, 
the poor poorer. During all that time while the people 
were fed with their own glorious achievements, fortunes 
were made, too large for comprehension, the owners of 
which might imitate Cleopatra, when she, to demonstrate 
her wealth, dissolved a pearl worth a million in some 
liquid and drank it, or the Roman emperors who spent 
the value of a whole province at a single banquet ! The 
public domain, millions upon millions of acres, sufficient 



3f3 EQUAL CHANCES. 

to furnish homesteads for millions of industrious farm ersy 
were squandered to giant monopolies, or allowed to be 
taken possession of by foreign capitalists. The latter 
take possession of the land which ought to be reserved 
for our own citizens, and the first now grind us down by 
exorbitant profits upon watered stock. The establish- 
ment of railroad pools, standard oil companies, to artifi- 
cially raise and uphold prices on one of the actua| 
necessities of life were permitted, rings were formed to' 
keep up and advance the price of coal, by limiting the out- 
put, by which operation poor children were pre vented 
from warming their chilly half-clad bodies in the cold 
winter weather! Speculations in wheat, pork and other 
necessities of life were not prohibited, until to-day there 
is hardly an article in existence, the price of. which is 
actually and only determined by the law of supply and 
demand, and all this in spite of the fact, that we first by 
a protective tariff kept out foreign competition, leav- 
ing the people at the mercy of merciless capitalists and 
speculators. There might be a number of similar 
Wrongs mentioned which originated by inappropriate 
laws, or were allowed to exist for the lack of proper 
laws, which our Solons might have enacted, but space 
forbids. Those mentioned show plainly, that the inter- 
ests of the majority were disregarded and the masses 
misguided, who in their ignorance failed to perceive the 
motives of political tricksters, having only their own ob- 
jects in view, or else the people had not the organization 
to counteract their plans. They all demonstrate the 
violation of the Taw of the Right of the Stronger, which 
we proposed to prove. 



"EQUAT. CHANCES. jjl 

Alter hav ng established his, we sha'l proceed to 
•cleterm ne wl at agencies were at work to prod ce 
and perpetuate this ignorance and apathy which en- 
abled demag giies to make tools of the masses; culti- 
vated political intelligence and energy on the part of 
the latter would have frustrated the designs of the former. 
The first cause of such ignorance is found in the fact, 
fchat the poor farmer and laborer has not time enough 
at his disposal to devote to the cultivation of mind. 
Fighting his way over artificial barriers through this 
world, his time is fully occupied in laboring for those 
dearest to him, who depend on his exertions for the 
necessaries and luxuries of life. Earning his bread in 
the sweat of his brow, the laborer in the field of agricul- 
ture or in the shop lacks the time, or after a hard day's 
labor the inclination of making a study of political or 
social abstract problems, the fallacies or merits of which, 
surrounded as they generally are, by a superabundancy 
of words and sophistry and contradicted by technicali- 
ties and misrepresentation of their opponents, he can 
not fully determine. Hard labor and the study of any 
science, and politics and law are sciences requiring 
mental ability and application, are antagonistic. While 
the laborer has enough of the first, he guides it to 
the channel of his own profession, rather neglecting 
politics or law. His teachers, who might enlighten him 
in his spare hours, are mostly on the other side and 
whenever a true friend steps up he is generally spurned. 
The laborer, not being in need of eloquence but muscle 
in his calling, does not acquire the first, but upon the 
principle that we most prize, what we least possess, he 



3 2 ZQXTAL CHAffCESi. 

gives eloquence an undue importance, is carried away 
by oratorical known othings, while the gifted man, who* 
plainly and in unadorned language utters ideas to the 1 
laborer's advantage is ; regarded by him as inferior to the 
orator of high sounding, nonsense.- According to his 
idea, that a thorough knowledge of law is eminently- 
necessary to a legislator, a shopmate, who has no knowl- 
edge of law, but as much or more abil ty and originality 
than some lawyer, is regarded as unfit to represent his. 
fellow- workmen; the above causes, to which sometimes 
must be added jealousy, prevent his nomination or elec- 
tion to influential positions, while some soft-handed and 
headed demagogue who has never done a single day's 
work ol hard manual labor is sent to 7/«>-represent the 
hoary-headed granger or mechanic. The interests of the 
representative are different from those of a majority of 
his constituents^ by insinuating speeches he has gained 
their hearts and votes; he straightway proceeds to be- 
tray the trust of the poor and the latter natural' y after- 
wards has only distrust for politicians; repeated experi- 
ence increases this and produces indifference in regard 
to politics. 

While it must be admitted, that the lower classes have 
their share in the existing state of affairs, that they are 
partly to blame for it, the greater blame rests upon those 
who use this ignorance and jealousy for their own pur- 
poses, who instead of lighting up the darkness, increase 
it and lead the blind into dangerous places. Every 
orator, author or editor, by virtue of his position, is the 
educator of his audience or readers. This exalted posi- 
tion imposes a great responsibility; having made a study 



EQUAL CHANCES. 33 

of the theme or issues, which he discusses, he ought to 
present them in their true state, in the effort to do his 
share in the elevation of man, the advancement of 
truth and to produce greater happiness and nobility of 
the human race. In his hands rests for the moment or 
for the term of his position the power to awaken the 
better, nobler, or worse and depraved passions of man ; 
in a greater or less circle he has great influence upon 
the mind, which produces deeds. The true man utters 
his real thoughts, whether this produces the victory or 
defeat of himself, friends or party; he scorns falsehood 
or evasion ; he places issues in the same light in which 
he sees them and lets the party or sentiments, which he 
repre ents stand on their own merits. But how many 
such true men have we? How many of our orator, 
authors or editors can lay their hands upon their hearts, 
truthfully saying: "We have never uttered a word to 
misguide the people, for the elevation o» which it was 
our duty to work; we never defended principles 
which we thought wrong; we have never knowing y 
uttered a falsehood or evaded the truth; we have 
never, for oratorical effect or other reasons, magni- 
fied the deeds of some of our partisan friends, or 
reduced the truly good deeds of our opponents.'- 
How many? 

Freedom of the Press, for which thousands of our 
noblest men have suffered and died ; what good has come 
from it when it was attained? Destined to be the means 
of interchange and propagation of opinions; to im- 
prove the condition of mankind; to loosen the shackle . 
fro 1 the wrists of the enslaved; to arous- nobler, greater 



34 EQUAL CHANCES. 

thoughts in the minds of a 1 .!; to make mankind one 
vast brotherhood; to stimulate all that is grand' and 
good in man; it has only partly fulfilled a'l these 
noble objects; but it has also been the means of dissemi- 
nating falsehoods; of tightening the shackles of slaves, of 
arousing animosities; of keeping people in ignorance of 
their own good and exciting them to anarchy, treason 
and wholesale murder! 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE GREAT DIVIDE. 

Though it must be conceded, that mental as well as 
phys cal strength are not equal y divided among men, 
and that some one possesses by far the greater amount 
than another, still the aggregate gre ter strength is with 
the greater number; it is fair to presume, that among 
equal numbers of men strength is about equal, that 
among unequal numbers the surplus of power rests with 
the greater number, and therefore in a contest victory 
ought to be on the side of the latter. Of the two kinds 
of strength in our times, the mental ought to wield the 
greater power; the age of the Mammoii Ichtyosaurus 
and other monster bodies is over, the animals of later 
periods possess ng smaller bodies and larger minds; the 
era of preponderance of physical power of man has 
passed and the greatest, most refined minds ought to 
rule over the smaller, less cultivated. If it were a fact, 
that the ruling elasses are endowed with superior mental 
ability, we would be compelled to submit to the therefrom 
resulting natural consequences; but the government of 



equal ctia::ce3. 35 

the irasse by 'Tic means used only re qui es the lowest 
elegiac of mind, that of cunning, which man sh res with 
the fox, not the deep se rching ab lity of the scientific 
exp~ore r , the genius of the artist or the gift of the in- 
ventor. As such is he case and, as it can not be argued, 
that the lesser number can pos es, more aggregate men- 
tal o" physical . tie ,gth than the greater, it is clear, that 
the government belongs to the ma ses, not to the few. 
Our assertion, that the poor classes represent a ma- 
jority, mHit be questioned and for this reason it be- 
comes of the utmost importance to show, who is rich and 
who is poor; we shall then know, which of the two classes 
presents the greater number and power and is therefore 
entitled to rule and whether we belong to the oppressors 
or oppressed. Artificial divisions shall then become 
worthless; Republicanism, Democracy, Greenbackism 
ought to give place to parties advocating more impor- 
tant issues : questions, such as freetrade or protection, 
what to do with the surplus and others, which now agi- 
tate the mind of the people and which are of only mod- 
erate importance, will only receive secondary consider- 
ation, the principal dividing line becoming the respec- 
tive material possessions of the citizens, the leading 
question the restoration of equal chances, and the down- 
fall of the privileged classes and monopolies. We then 
can do away with the tangled web of sophistry of our 
public speakers or. editors; real issues will force them- 
selves forward, which a common man, endowed with 
ordinary intellect, will be able to understand, to judge 
for himself, on which side he belongs and which meas- 
ures and laws are in his favor. Fully knowing, to 



$6 EQLAL CHANCES. 

which side he belongs, he will join the grand army of 
the poor, against which the companies of the priv leged 
are sire to suffer defeat. The arms used in this con- 
flict will not be bombs of dynamite or repeating rifles or 
revolvers, but the sure weapon of the ballot in the hands 
Df intelligent voters, the only arms, which ought to be 
used in this country and which will prove to be the only 
means to obtain permanent redress for any wrongs suf- 
fered. 

A rich man is one, who owns more than average 
wealth; a poor one, who possesses less; to find such 
average, we copy the following statement: "In i860 
the wealth of the United States was equivalent to 
$615.00 per capita, in 1880 it was $940.00 per capita. 
In New England the wealth to each person was $610.00 
in i860 and $1,235.00 in 1880. In the middle states it 
was $525.00 per capita in i860 and $1,430.00 in 1880. 
In the southern states the rate per capita in i860 was 
$595.00 and $299.00 in 1880. This falling off is due to 
the^emancipation of the slaves and the losses by the 
war. In the western states the rate per capita in i860 
was $450.00 and in 1880 $850.00. Exclusive of roads 
and public lands the per capita wealth of the whole 
country was $535.00 in i860 and $830.00 in 1880." 

We give this statement not as being exactly correct, 
though we suppose it to be based upon statistical returns 
and we do not regard the wealth as taken any too high, 
but too low. James G. Blaine estimated at the time of 
his candidacy for President the total wealth of the U. 
S. at $45,000,000,000 which, when devided by 55,000,- 
000,000 of inhabitants would give a per capita wealth 



"EtyUAT. THA"NTJES. 37 

oF $8t^.do, Trorn which total wealth the bonds and 
securities held by foreign capitalists wou'd have to be 
.-subtracted, Both, above statement as well as Mr. 
Blaine's estimate, are probably compiled from taxation 
a-eturns, which are extremely unreliable, as the real estate 
Is not taxed for its full value and monies and credits 
almost altogether escape taxation and it would not be 
surprising if the per capita wealth •of our country were 
at least double as much, than the above statement shows. 
Whether such is the case or not, can and will be deter- 
mined, after this question has become of importance; 
we shall then have a basis, from which to start. In the 
meantime, accepting above figures as nearly correct, we 
then would call every man in the southern states, who 
•does not possess $299.00 (not taking in consideration in- 
crease of wealth since 1880) another like amount for his 
wife and the same for each ot his children a poor man, 
every one, who has more, rich. It will be observed, that 
the amounts mentioned are not the prorata of families, 
but per capita or heads, that is, every man, woman and 
child; therefore a man, who has a wife and five children 
and owns not wealth to the amount of $2,093.00 in the 
southern states is a poor man, because others own more 
than that amount and are richer, than he is. In 
the western states, where the prorata is $830.00, a 
man with a like family possessing less than $5,810.00 
would belong to the poor; in the New Eng and states 
$8,645.00 would be required, while in the middle states, 
the richest of all $10,010.00 would be the dividing line. 
We now have a basis, on which to start, a natural di- 
viding line instead of an artificial. The greatest good 



to the greatest number is certainly a good principle^ 
based upon our often mentioned natural law and th's 
principle imperatively demands, that all laws, allowing at 
small minority the enjo) merit of the greater advantages- 
of civilization and lefinement, while dooming an over- 
whelming majority to the perpetual slavery of labor r 
from which to escape becomes- harder from day to day r 
allowing the concentration of large capitals in the hands 
of a few r with which to oppress many r which permit 
giant mercantile and manufacturing enterprises to grow 
up, under the shadow of which the small merchant and 
manufacturer droops and falls, should be revoked. The 
greatest good to the greatest number means disadvan- 
tage to the few, advantage to many, oppression, hard 
labor, lack of necessaries and luxuries of life, lack of 
culture and refinement, in short lack of all the blessings 
of this earth to the few, their enjoyment to the greatest 
number. Instead of this, we find in reality just the re- 
verse. In large cities we find comparatively a few men, 
residing in costly palaces, while there are streets upon 
streets, where poverty and squailor reign supremely, 
where ragged children look from hollow eyes upon 
richly dressed ladies, who pass by, daintily raising their 
silken skirts, so as to avoid contact with the scum of 
the earth. These same children will reproduce and 
multiply the conditions, in which they were raised. Like 
begets Like. Their education and morals neglected, 
they will in later years become fit objects for penitenti- 
aries and houses of ill-fame and many of their offspring 
will follow in their footsteps. We find manufacturers, 
whose signatures are worth millions of dollars and we 



EC/UAL "CHANCES. 39 

tfind their poor employees, whose credit is not good for 
a loaf of bread. i here are a few men with immoderate 
wealth, surrounded by -all that desire craves or competi- 
tion furnishes, and there is a vastly superior number 
men, who have not the cash to feed themselves and 
families decently. 

There might be the reply, that fhis has been so 4 since 
the world began and will be so until it comes to an end. 
True, it always lias been so, but this is no indication 
that it will not change. We shall always have wealth 
and poverty, morality and immorality, eminence and 
lowliness, virtue and vice; no need of denying that. 
It is just as necessary to have these extremes as to have 
night and day, death and life; one necessitates the 
other, one is only a degree of the other. But we posi_ 
lively assert and humanity seconds this assertion, that 
any system, which permits a few to possess immoderate 
wealth, luxuries and refinement, while it dooms an over- 
whelming majority to their contrasts, however upheld, 
however sarctif ed by the dust and cobwebs of a thou- 
sand ages, is wrong and detrimental to the best interests 
of the human race, that it has outlived its time and is 
doomed to die. 

We do not wish or ask for equality. It is undesirable 
for the advancement of the race, it is not the design of 
nature. Everything in nature, from the mineral up- 
wards tends to diversity and inequality, not two leaves 
being form :d exactly alike, two animals, which upon 
close examination prove alike in every particular, nor 
two men, who are not different from each other. We 
do not want the shrub equal to the sturdy oak, we would 



4& FTQUAL CHAKCZ&r 

not, if we cottlcf, raise k by the means of artfrTcfal 
stretchers to the height of the tree; St would be both im- 
possible and unnatural, but we want to give them both 
equal facilities for growing, equally good soil, plenty o^ 
sunlight and no artificial barriers between them and the 
refreshing, vitalizing rains of heaven. We ask for al^ 
human beings not equality,, but equality ©f chances-; we 
ask, that all artificial barriers be removed from our path 
to development and prosperity,, that, unfettered by the 
chains of gold or poverty,, we be allowed to enter the 
race of life 7 we ask, that none but natural defects r phy- 
sical or mental be the impediments in our course and 
that no consideration of money or station should be 
allowed to arrest our physical, mental and moral devel- 
opment. 

When otir forefathers adopted 3s their highest aim m 
the bloody contest T Equality, Fraternity and Liberty 
and carried them victoriously through the death-dealing 
ranks of the enemy, they followed a Fata Morgana; the 
more they pursued it, the farther it receded I Equality 
they could not reach, it being contrary to nature, not 
even equality before the law. Lawsuits are expensive 
institutions in which the poor, with advantage to him- 
self, can not indulge, the richer on account of his wealth 
being enabled to carry them higher, than his opponent 
can follow, or by delays and technicalities of law to 
evade Justice. Fraternity and Liberty, thanks to a wrong 
system, are supplanted through greed and ambition, by 
jealousy, contention and oppression! 



EQUAL CHANCES. 41 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE DIFFERENCE. 

Ambition and love to accumulate, when properly kept 
within bounds or not art ficially aroused, are apt to con- 
tribute greatly to the advancement and prosperity of 
mankind; in fact they had a great share in producing 
our present state of civilization. It will not do to 
annihilate these traits by .egislation or otherwise, though 
it is desirable to curb them by removing inducements 
for their unnatural iriowth. To retain our civilization, 
we must retain ambition and love to accumulate; expe- 
rience has convinced us, that they are factors in reach- 
ing the present advanced condition of mankind; their 
proper exercise has not injured us; consequently we are 
not making war upon their proper degree, but upon 
their abuse. 

Selfishness is the main-spring of all existence; remove 
it, if you can, and the universe will fall to pieces. It 
taught us not only the ruder occupations of hunting and 
fishing in the infancy of mankind, but also agriculture as 
a starting point in civi ized life, and furthermore induced 
us to make rapid progress in arts, sciences and litera- 
ture. Based upon it, are ambition and desire of wealth 
and that trinity transformed the world. From waste it 
changed it into blooming fields; it elevated ferocious 
man of pre-historic times to modern man; it produced 
our advance in all directions. It caused the erection of 
the Pyramids as well as St. Peter's Cathedral and the sus- 
pension bridge at Niagara Falls; it created the works of 
our immortal masters in painting and music; it dictated 



42 EQUAL CHANCES. 

the works of our great authors and poets. Whatever 
there is grand a; d noble and good, was stimulated, if 
not called into existence by it, but it has also been the 
c use of all misery in the world. Its abuse has led na- 
tions into bat le, it has made Man worse than a demon ; it 
has directed the dagger of the murderer. It has kindled 
the fires of inquisition, invented the instruments of tor- 
ture, and forged the shackles of the enslaved. The 
greatest friend of the human family, it is also, and has 
been its bitterest enemy. 

How then to dam this so useful and ennobling and at 
the same time so ha mful and degrading a tr.'nity, be- 
comes a question of all absorbing importance. To abol- 
ish it, means anarchy and chaos, implies the annihilation 
of all that man has gained in ages, a return to the s + ate 
of the animal. To foster and encourage it, imp'ies 
greater suffering of the masses, greater servitude, than 
they have ever before endured. Our civilization must 
be preserved, our attainments perpetuated, our humanity 
remain intact and be promoted. We must give full pi y 
to selfishness, ambition and love of wealth, at the same 
time removing all artificial indue ments for unna ural 
g owth. We must treat them like fire, which, when 
properly con' rolled by man, is his most useful se vant, 
but left to rage without restraint, becomes his mas u 
and destroyer. 

The greatest inducement to ambition and greed is 
the usefulness of the artie'e coveted or gained; the more 
useful and consequently desired any artie'e is, the more 
it becomes an object of desire. Whatever becomes 
less useful and desirabl: ceases to be the goal of greed, 



EQUAL . CKANXE3. 43 

in a proportionate decree, the desirability of everything 
being the measure of its value and the efforts for its 
attainment being in proportion to its value. Anything 
perishable in its nature, if impossible to dispose of 
soon, might be desired in moderate qu.m ities, but it 
would not be hoarded, like something of a different 
and more permanent nature. Real estate always has 
been an object of desire, it 1 eing, under ordinary cir- 
cumstances, the surest in\ estment, being always more 
or less in demand and for this reason not liab e to great 
fluctuation in price. % Money also has a 1 ways, since it 
came into existence, been in demand, because it can 
be changed at any time into anything else, houses, 
land or goods. Though perishable itself, it can be 
transformed into comparatively imperishable value, and 
either in its natural shape or any other be transmitted 
to posterity. Lands, goods or money rave this one 
point in common, that they can be transferred to those 
we love; being of benefit to us we like to benefit our 
offspring likewise, and so a great incentive is created to 
grasp and retain as much wealth as we can possibly 
gather. 

Our laws allowing transmission of property after the 
death of the original owner are relics of barbarism. 
When our first states were formed, self-made rulers 
declared themselves kings and created their lieutenants 
aristocrats; this was a depature from nature, and not 
naturally a victory of the st onger over the weaker. 
But not satisfied with this outrage they went a great 
deal further by establishing hereditary majesty and 
nobility. While the successful usurpers of power were 



44 . EQUAL CHANCES. 

favored by lucky circumstances; they must have pos- 
sessed superior abilities to vanquish and keep in sub- 
jection the stronger masses, which mental traits to a 
certain point excuse their actions, but it is quite differ- 
ent with their descendants, to whom they transmitted 
their self-acquired power, but only in very rare cases 
their abilities. We hardly ever mid a great son of a 
great father. Nature seems to be satisfied with one 
successful effort in one family, and for this reason it 
very seldom happened, that the s-jns of those rulers and 
aristocrats inherited the same traits, to which the fathers 
owed eminence. The ions only held their exalted 
posit ons by sufferance, not having acquired their pat- 
ents of nobility from nature or by the right of the 
stronger, which is the only power to gran' them. 

After thousands of years of agitation, after thousands 
of uprisings against despots and aristocracy, we have in 
this country obtained po itical liberty, such as it is. 
We do not bend our knees to annointed sovere : gns, 
deriving their majesty from God's grace, nor do we 
acknowledge hereditary aristocracy, but we only went 
half ways; we do not govern our own affa'rs ar.d still 
retain the aristocracy of money; while we do r.ot rever- 
ence Majesty, we do homage to King Mammon! We 
have dispelled from our minds the illu ion, that one 
c hild is born with blue blood, another with the more 
common red; that one is born ncble and thousands 
gnoble, but we : cknowledge, that one child is born 
rich, the other poor. We have not revoked the l.nvs 
allowing property accumulated by the stronger father 
to be transmitted to the weaker heirs, which laws are 



"EQXTAT. CHANCES. 45 

but the natural companions of those creating and main- 
taining hereditary majesty and aristocracy. We have 
supplanted one kind of aristocracy by another, equally 
bad, if not worse. Many of the ancestors of noble 
families acquired their titles and eminence by deeds of 
-heroism, services rendered in the interest of country 
and mankind. Nob lity obliges ; these descendants think- 
ing them elves supeiior to the common rabble and well 
knowing, that this superiority to be fully acknowledged 
must ie 3 t upon facts, try to imitate their ancestors as 
nearly as possible; striving to become like them, they 
improve their mental abilit es, as far as they are capable 
of improvement, n the effort to equal them m learning, 
in deeds of vailor and patriotism, and in rendering the 
same services to country and world, as their great an- 
cestors have done. Not so with our money-aristocracy; 
not denying that there are many truly noble men am ng 
them, a great majority acquire their wealth by lucky cir- 
cumstances in combination with a stingy dispos tion and 
by pressing as much profit and interest from their vic- 
tims, as it was prudent to exact, even by evasions and 
violations of to them only too favorable aws, going be- 
yond the limits of those laws, which the poor masses, 
unconscious of their own superior strength and divided 
by artificial differences of opinion, allowed to be exacted 
and upheld. The only deeds, which a majority of the 
ancestors of wealthy heirs committed, were deeds dic- 
tated by avarice deeds of oppression, of violation of 
political and humane laws. This may seem strong lan- 
guage, but to prove it it is only necessary to point 
to the prevailing violations of the usury laws, ef- 



jfi EQUAL CHANGES'. 

fected by v riwi ^ingerakyas- devices and to that of orrr 
state taxaion laws, which, though perhaps enacted with 
a- view to eejjual distribution- of the- burdens of taxation,, 
are u fversally evaded fay the wealthy and> radically fail 
to fulfill tbgiF pi* poses* Therkh, being able to hide 
their wealth,, evade the payment of the greater part ofi 
taxation, while tl <r poor man's small possessions are ex- 
posed to the eyes of neighbors and of assessors; conse- 
quently the latter pays more bin his full share, furnish- 
in; the protection of the s monger m sses against his 
own interests to the lesser number and besides being 
the financial loser in the bargain.. If every one of our 
wealthy men, who makes a false statement to the as- 
sessor, or commits- perjury in regard to his possessions,, 
were doomed to perdition for his crimes, hell would 
be filled to overflowing, and heaven gain by their 
absence* 

CHAPTER IX, 

SOME PROPOSED REMEDIES* 

With all due respect to that president of a great rail- 
road company, we can not agree with him, when he ex- 
presses the opinion that the general restlessness, the 
often urged and violent demand of the laborer for wages 
corresponding with his work and expenses, and the de- 
sire of the farmer for higher prices for bis produce, are 
signs of extraordinary prosperity; but we find in these 
symptoms a sure indication, that something is radically 
wrong in our body-politic; that we are suff erring from 
some disease, the logical consequence of the violation 



"EQ"CA"L 'CHANCE'S. 47 

<oT some law o~ nati re. From the symptom we con- 
clude, what particular law has been so a'bu.-ed and the 
•question next aiLses, what mast we do to abolish the 
cause, thereby rcstorii g health and vigor ? Our medi- 
cal quacks in physical ailments would feel our pulse, ex- 
amine our ton <ues, ask a 'dozen different question s and 
then prescribe pepsin, quinine, calomel or some other 
•equally renowj ed remedy; if one or the other would 
not work satssfactoiily, they would advise us to try some 
other. Totally ignoring the fact, that disease cannot 
exist, where there is and has been full compliance with 
thi laws of nature, and that all these remedies cannot 
restore health, they prescribe the r nostrums, fully 
knowing t the ame time, that they can at best only af- 
fo-d temporary relief. Similarly our social reformers 
have acted ; they have from time immemorial proposed 
different remedies, part of which would only have aggra- 
vated the disease, while others tended to relieve tempo- 
rarily, but not going to the bottom of the t.ouble, could 
not possibiy effect a cure. 

We shall review a few of the most important of these 
proposed reforms, for the purpose of showing their falla- 
cies, and to show that, while one might s em to relieve, 
it would do so at the sacrifice of higher interests, replac- 
ing one disease by another, as bad or worse, than thj 
first, while another would do rs no good in any direction, 
but positive inju y. At the head of these refoims stands 
perhaps socialism, whLh was pajtially successful in old 
Sparta. Money then was made of heavy iron, so as to 
become extremely cumbersome; people of all classes 
were fed on the ame black ^oup; luxu.ies were excluded, 



4» ITQUAL CHANCES, 

hardiness and contempt for bodily pain encouraged"; 
children after having attained a certain age belonged to- 
and were raised by the state. By adherence to this sys- 
tem a strong frugal race would have been, established 
and maintained, but at tke same time the ties of fami- 
lies were destroyed and arts, science and .iterature 
would have been repressed. While moilera soci 1 sts 
do not adhere to* tfoe same ideas and greatly d verge 
among themselves, ffoere are enough objection b'e 
features entertained by triers, whichi would tend to de- 
stroy individuality, that cannot be reJiiitfjjoished without 
se.ious injury. While k is true, ilut by the substitution 
of co-operation for compet tion, a great incentive to 
cone . ntration of wea th is removed, the principle that 
the profits of a'l labor becomes the common property 
of all, removes a great deal of individual exertion. 
But just this exertion is the cause of individual great- 
ness; whenever there is no equivalent inducement and 
recompense for labor gratifying ambition nd selfishness, 
these traits cease to exist, while they ought to exist in a 
proper degree. Such a system irri._hf perhaps satisfy an 
inferior mind, but it will never the superior. Destroy- 
ing or reducing to an insufficient degree ambition and 
selfishness, to which the world owes so much of its 
progress, it can not be in the interest of advancement 
and civilization. We here copy an ar.iclefrom the pen 
of Rob. Ingersoll on Socialism, which embodies the 
main objection to that theory, to which we fully sub- 
scribe : 

"Some of the best and purest of the race have advo- 
cated, what is known as Socialism. They h ve not only 



EQUAL CHANCES. 49 

thought, but what is much more to the purpose, have 
believed, that a nation should be a family ; that the gov- 
ernment should take care of all its children, that it 
should provide work and food and clothes and educa- 
tion for ail and that it should divide the results of ail 
labor equitably with all." 

Seeing the inequalities among men, knowing of the 
destitution and crime, these men were willing to sacri- 
fice not only their own liberty but the liberties of all. 

Socialism seems to be the worst possible form oi 
slavery. Nothing in my judgment would so utterly 
paralyze all the force.-, all the splendid ambitions and 
aspirations, that now rend to the civilization of man. 
In ordinary systems of slavery there are some masters — 
a few are supposed to be free: but in a socialistic state 
all would be slaves. 

If the government is to provide work, it must decide 
for the worker, what he must do. It must say, who 
shall chisel statues, who shall paint pictures, who shall 
compose music and who shall practice the professions. 
Is any government or can any government be capable 
of intelligently performing these countless duties? It 
must not only control, work, it must not only decide, 
what each shall do ; but it must control expenses, be- 
cause expenses bear a direct relation to the products. 
Therefore, the government must decide, what the 
worker shall eat and wherewithal he shall be clothed, 
the kind of house, in which he shall live, the manner, 
in which it shall be furnished, and if this government 
furnishes the work it must decide on the days or hours 
of leisure. More than this, it must fix values; it must 



5<D EQUAL CHANCES. 

decide not only, who shall sell, but who shall buy and 
the price that must be paid — and it must fix the valu : 
not simply upon the labor, but on everything that can 
be produced, that can be exchanged or s.Jd. 

Is it possible to conceive of a despotism beyond this? 
The present conditi n of the world is bad enough, with 
its poverty and ignor.mce, but it is . far better, than it 
could by any possib.lity be under any government ike 
the above described. There would be 1 ss hunger of 
the body, but not of the min '. Each man would sim- 
ply be a citizen of a :arge penitentiary, and, as in every 
well-regulated prison, somebo !y wo Id de ide what 
each shonld do. The inmates of a pris n retire earlv, 
they have clothes, they attend divine service, they have 
but little to say about their neighb rs; they do not suf- 
fer from cold; their habits are excellent, and y^t, no 
one envies their condition. Socialism destroys the 
family. The children belong to the state. Certain 
officers take t'e phce of parents. Individuality i, lost. 

The human race canno arloid to exchange its liberty 
for any possible comfort. You remember the old able 
of the fat dog that met the lean wolf in the forest. 
The wolf, astonished to see so prosperous an animal, 
inquired of the dog, where he got his food, and the dog 
told him, that there was a man, who took care of him, 
gave him his breakfast, his dinner and his supper with 
the utmost regularity, and that he had al! he could eat 
and very little to do. The wolf said: "Do you think 
this man wOuld treat me as he d es you?" The dog 
replied: "Yes; come along with me. " So they jogged 
along together towards the dog's home. On the way 



EQUAL CHANCES. 5 I 

the wolf happened to notice, that some hair was worn 
off the dog's neck and he said: " How did the hair be- 
come worn?" "That is," said the dog, "the mark of 
my collar, my master ties me at night." "Oh," said 
the wolf, "are you chained? are you deprived of your 
liberty? I believe I wi 1 go back, I prefer hunger." 

The theory advocated in Henry George's Land Ques- 
tion comes somewhat closer to a solution of the ques- 
tion ; though it won d, as far as it goes, remedy many 
evils and alleviate others, yet it is not radical enough 
It implies, that all land belongs to all, hat all owning it no 
part can become the private property of any one to be 
sold or given away, but may be tenanted by any citizen 
of the state upon payment of a taxation to its full rental 
.value. This system, though it would end the reign o.' 
the monied men in regard :o land, would not prevent 
them from monopolizing all the rest of desirable wealth. 

While it is a step ahead in the right direction it does 
not go far enough. It is true that we can vegetate 
without the arti.'cial articles, made by Man, and not 
without the products of land, but the latter can be pur- 
chased with money and the one, who has lots of it, can 
buy these products, artificially raise their prices, and 
control the rates of shipment, the eby producing the 
same evils, from which our western farmers and eastern 
laborers are now suffering. In the infancy of Mankind, 
when luxuries we. e almost unknown and money did not 
exist, such a plan might have worked admir bly but not 
in our age, when Man has one hundred necessities, 
where formerly he had but one and when there is so 
much value outside of real estate. While it might pro- 



52 EQUAL CHANCES. 

tect one class of farmers and indirectly to some extent 
the laborer, we can not see, how it could materially 
benefit those millions, engaged in. manufacturing or 
mining enterprises, railroad workers and other laboring 
men. Would it have any effect upon the western farm- 
ers, whose trouble is not an excessive rent to the land 
owner, but the distance from market and the exorbitant 
charges from gigantic railroad monopolies? While it 
would remove the greatest evil now existing in England 
and especially Ireland, which will also in the course cf 
time invade this count y, the land question is not for 
us the leading one, as our public domain is not yet ex- 
hausted and land in the far West, thanks to our home- 
stead and timber laws, can be acquired with very little 
outlay of money. In later years, when these evils, winch 
now oppress European states have crossed the ocean, 
when land will b a most unobtainable and no better, 
more comprehensive plan should have been found, 
Henry George's may do, but for the present it stands 
very little chance of becoming a reality in the U. S. 

The latest and most powerfu attempt at the improve- 
ment of the people's condition by the same means, to 
which great corporations and monopolies owe their suc- 
cess, upon the principle of all standing -together in 
furthering the interests of every one of their members, 
has been made by the Knights of Labor. While this 
order has and deserves the sympathies of the wor ing 
classes and while the latter wish to see it succeed in its 
heroic attempts against the a most invincible power Oi 
the " Communism of Wealth," as Senator Van W \ k 
appropriately names the organizations of capital, it ought 



HQTJAL CHAN CDS, ^3 

to "be apparent and has partly been shown by experi- 
ence, that its efforts will prove to a great degree tin- 
availing. In the first place the 'drain upon the purses of 
underpaid and 'Overtaxed laborers, though small, is yet 
a heavy burden, for which part of the -contributors re- 
ceive no immediate returns. The money so obtained 
is used to keep 'tip the organization and to support 
those of their -comrades engaged in a strike, which in 
th ; nature of things and under ordinary circumstances, 
in a majority of cases is bound to .fail. In the place cf 
thousand strikers, cur ra lroad manufacturing kings and 
"mining operators can in a short time command 5,000 
•other men, who are, it m 1st be conceded, not as well 
•skilled rs the strikers, but a>e apt to learn and are wil- 
ing and glad, to press into the places, made vacant by a 
strike. How long the strikers can hold out against 
capita 1 , is only a question. *of time and all the odds are 
an favor of capital and against labor. Every day'.; 
labor lost to the laborer means a corresponding finai> 
c al loss, which in oase of victory may be made up by 
increased wages, in case of defeat though is irreparable, 
while corporations and monopolies only have to increase 
their rates or prices, which by reason of combination, 
can easily be done, to make up all losses. There are 
always hosts of unemployed men, who eager 1 ) 7 " accept 
work at almost any condition; skill is, in most manu- 
facturing enterprises at least, not as much required as 
formerly, owing to separation of labor practiced in 
large factories; with the assistenceof these it is easy to 
bridge over the short space of time, during which strikers, 
harrassed as they are by the neces ary regard for their 



54 EQUAL chancer 

families, can be without employment arc! so they ar? 
generally forced back at the employers terms and glad 
:o accept th? old positions at the old conditions. Then? 
the money, which the laborers save from their meager 
wages to- contribute to the fraternity, may be and is 
sometimes misused. While some assemblies only strike r 
when such action is neces ary and unavoidable, others. 
again, ruled by unrulier head's,, unw seTy strike without 
necessity or when milder means had not orev ously 
been resorted to, when arbitration might have pi cd :c:ed 
the desired result at least as- v/Jl as harsher means. 
This must create dissatisfaction. Another tio-uble is 7 
that some evil-disposed persons, who think to gain- ad- 
vantage b.v a riot, or to satisfy some -private revenue, 
commit some deed of villainy, for wh ch the Knights of 
Labo , though the perpetrators 60 not belong to hau 
order, are held re ponsible by an uninformed public. 
The same result follows, whe • force and bloodshed are 
used to prevent others from work ; such action alienates; 
the sympathy of the 'public, which generally in the 
commencement of a strike is on th siuj of the strikers, 
to which it naturally leans and forces it to the side 
of the wealthy, Up which it does not belong. While 
capital and labor adopted the same tactics, there is this 
great difference, which will change the result, that the 
"Communism of Wealth" brings immediate sure returns, 
without any sacrifice, while the combination of laboring 
men brings immediate sacrifice and generally no returns. 
These reasons together with the f;ct, that a strong cen- 
tral power subject to suspicion, jealousy and criticism 
is necessary to keep in bounds the masses, are in our 



EQUAL CHANCES. 35 

©pinion sufficient to dis-m ember in the course of time 
the now so- formidable brotherhood of the Knights of 
iLabor. While we heartily wish them success, we a.e 
-■sorry not o be able to predict it. 

Outside of these and other cliffe'ent 'organizations, 
-who attempt to improve the condition .of the masse by 
means of theories and plans, cor ect according to their 
own knowledge and belief and which they endeavor to 
bring into force by legil means, there exist others, who 
think thsy ca i refor.n the w nli with dynamite and 
gunpowder. For such we have no use in our age and 
•country. There a e no tyrants ruling hereexcep those 
of our own mak r.cr and whom we can at any time de- 
•throne; no irjurlous law.; to box! us in subjection except 
such as the strong t misses-can at any tinu revoke ; no 
•evils existing but tho e, winch we ignorantly have al- 
lowed to grew up- They can never overpowe us, if we 
.shake off our in difference, if we open our eyes to the 
light. Tyranny, ba-d laws and evils exist only by suffer- 
ance, they end, whenever we will to end them. It con- 
sequently febows. tl at there is no earthly reason for 
violence or bloodshed, and tho^e who advocate such 
extreme measures, only fit to produce chaos and an- 
archy, are the enemies of the poor as well as the rich, 
are the enemies of ail. If we exhaust the peaceful 
means at our disposal, we shall in the course of time 
reach our destination without any violent revolutions; 
without arson, bloodshed, murder or any other of the 
heinous means of warfare of these misguided, which are 
sure to turn a glorious final victory into inglorious de- 
feat. Instead ot making friends and allies to our just 



5*6 EQUAL CHATSTCES".. 

cause, just because it benefits a majority of mankind,, 
the greater part of human beings would turn our ene- 
mies; instead of sympathy we would earn condemna- 
tion;, sowing crime,, we would reap crime, not prosperity 
and advancement.. This point cannot be made too- 
strongs as- everyth ng in the pending struggle depends- 
on the proper means and as- it is easy to arouse the too* 
long and too heavily oppressed masses inf.© uncontrol- 
lable frenzy, which seems to be the nd and aim of some 
agitators and which would tend to Shrow the anathema 
of the whole « ivilized world upon our just cause and its 
defend jrs- In our country and at the present time we 
have no use Cor or need of Nihilists- The purer and 
nobler the cause, the more peaceful ought t©' be the 
means for its at'ai ment. Dynamite and gunpowder, 
swords and daggers, rifles and cannon are or ought to 
be arms of the barbarous past, arms unreliable and apt 
to hurt those depending on their use, but the little paper 
ballot, in the hands of the intelligent, enlightened citi- 
zen, is the surest and most effective weapon to establish 
and preserve our rights. 

CHAPTER X. 

THE TRUE REMEDY. 

Af er having reviewed some of the proposed remedies 
and having shown, that they are at best only apt to 
temporarily relieve our body politic, not to cure it, we 
now must consider, which is the true remedy, one that 
will not aggravate thhe symptoms, one that will 
not only relieve but cure the disease. The latter 



EQUAL CHANCES. 57 

cannot exist, where natural laws have been complied 
with and for this reason, the only radical cure for any 
ailment, whether of a physical, political or social char- 
acter consists in the return to compliance with such 
laws, when health will follow as a matter of course, pro- 
vided there is enough vitality left. The natural Law 
violated is, as we have seen, that of the Right of the 
Stronger. From the beginning of our governments 
people full of greed and ambition either formed states 
or took possession of the rudder of states, directing them 
in any direction they pleased. Presenting greater arti- 
ficial not inherent strength, than the oppressed, they 
framed things all their own way, receiving everything 
desirable, of which they became posses ed by fair means 
or foul, empires, titles of nobility and wealth to them- 
selves during their own life, and also to their children 
and children's children. 

The transmission of property by inheritance is the 
main cause of all our troubles, of physical and mental 
diseases, of sordidity, of suffering and crime. It causes 
the accumulation of millions, the possession of which 
properly divided would make thousands happy, while in 
the hands of one it creates trouble and misery to their 
possessor as well as to the world in general. Instead 
of stimulating the enterprise of the middle class, the 
most desirable of all, these absurd laws annihilate it; 
they institute an aristocracy in our country, where those 
noble men, who framed our Constitution and upheld it 
amid clouds of smoke and the thunder of cannon, de- 
creed, that all should be equal! They doom vigorous 
youth to drudgery in unhealthy avocations, which change 



58 EQUAL CHANCES. 

it prematurely into drooping age. They induce legisla- 
tion, which allows one man or organization a 1 amount 
of power, which a prince would be proud to w eld and 
force millions of other men, as good as he, to pay that 
one a princely tribute in some form. By arousing and 
increasing our inborn greed, they have introduced hire- 
lings into our legislative halls, they have filled our luna- 
tic asylums with patients, our penitentiaries with 
convicts. 

The transmission of property by inheritance is unnat- 
ural, therefore detrimental and criminal. The only 
valid title to possession ought to be based upon the 
Right of the Stronger within legal bounds, that is ac- 
cording to certain laws which a well-informed nation 
enacts. In the interests of civilization we can not allow 
one man, who is physically stronger than another, or 
craftier to take by individual force or craft another's 
legally acquired and allowed wealth; this would lead to 
chaos, it would reduce us to the state of the bru e; we 
therefore oppose the strength of all the citizens of a 
state to tbe power of the ind vidual. The state p.o- 
tects every one of its inhabitants in the possession of 
property acquired in conformity with existing laws, 
which ought to have been enacted by the will of a 
majority fully informed of their objects and merits. Laws 
to be successful must be based upon the superior we'd 
exercised judgment and power of a majority of the 
people. But when the will of a majority is disregarded 
or -retarded by forcing false issues and questions to 
obscure true ones, by making the people believe, that 
laws are in its favor, while they are injurious, when pub- 



EQUAL CHANCES. 59 

lie opinion is biased by misrepresentations or evasions, 
then such laws, though apparently endorsed by a major- 
ity, are only the work of a minority. When they are 
not passed in conformity to the best interests of those 
governed, when a greater portion of them suffer in con- 
sequence, they may be the result of error, but in a ma- 
jority of cases they are not thj expre. sio of the popu- 
lar will and only shaped and enacted with the sole aim 
and object of a few classes to rule over others. Present- 
ing an unbroken organization against die greater power 
o. the a.tificia ly divided people it was ensy work for the 
weabhy to ob ain 1 .ws for their own ben. fit and not that 
of all the people, and among these are our laws govern- 
ing inheritance and taxation of prop ;rty. 

The right of the stronger does not necessitate the 
principle, that everyone is d nied the right to enjoy the 
fruits of his labor. Whatever a man has honestly ac- 
quired, represents the result o" his physical or mental 
work, which the state, organ zed and maintained to pro- 
tect its citizens in life and property, is bound to respect 
and protect. The state, being the stronger, commands, 
that whatever One hold, by legal acquisition be his own, 
and the state :s right, because without such command 
and its enforcement, nobody would have any inducement 
to produce or accumulate wealth, as nobody would even 
for one moment be secure in his possessions, some one 
physically tronger being at any time able to deprive the* 
weaker of the results of the latter's labor. If there Mere 
no recompense for or security of the results of labor, the 
latter would almost cease; nobody would work physical- 
ly or mentally except so far, as immediate needs are con- 



6o EQUAL CHANCES. 

cerned and our planet would become a waste desert 
Considering the physi :al as well as mental inequalities 
of different men, it is apparent, that the results anc 1 
benefits of labor differ and ought to differ. If Smith can 
p Tform a double amount of work in the same time as 
Jones, it is clear, that Smith is entitled to and ought tc 
have a double amount of wages. If Brown by superior 
menta ab^ ity invents a machine able to perform the 
work of a hundred men in the same time, Brown ought tc 
be entitled to the wages of a hundred men, as the ri ht 
of the stronger applies equally to mind and body. In 
consequence of these diffe;ent abilities, these m n ac- 
quire a different degree of wealth, Smith and Erown more 
than the weaker Jones; this is in accordance with the law 
of nature, it is right and ought not to be changed. 

But it becomes quite adiffeeirt affair, when our three 
men die. Smith by virtue of Irs grea er bodily ability 
has accumulated quite a fortune, say $5,000.00. Jones 
used the rath.r small fruits of his labor to keep himself 
and family alive and had trouble even to accomp ish this 
object, Brown in the same time having amassed a million 
of dollars. We suppose, that each of our hree men left 
one son crying at his death-bed. Smith leaves one of 
very moderate mental, but considerable physical abi ity; 
Jones, as frequently happens, leaves a son with great en- 
dowments in regard to mind, a great inventive genius' 
while the son of the great inventor is almost devoid of 
sense, having inherited no great traits from his i great 
father. By the right of the stronger Smith's son ought 
to boast of only moderate success in life, as by the law 
of nature he can not acquire and hold a great amount 



EQUAL CHANCES. 6l 

of worldly goods. Young Jones, according to the same 
law, ought to make his millions in the course of his 
natural life, while Brown's son cughi to be thankful if 
able to keep the wolf from the door. 

Right in here come our unnatural laws, enacted by 
the rich for the benefit of the rich, endowing the idiot 
wi h £,oco,ooo, the average boy with 5,000.00 and the 
m ntally strongest with nothing at all, the law of Nature 
beirg entirely r.ve s d by Man; the great son of a very 
small father, on account of his fathers disabilities, not his 
o v 'ii, by drcumstances,over which h had no control what- 
ever, receives a very meager education, whi.h does not 
allow the full development of his talents; in ord r to as- 
s' it hi- father in his efforts to keep the family, is perhaps 
forced to work prematurely in a factory or occupation, 
where the strain upon his physique not only destroys a 
great part of his odi'y but in sympathy also of his mental 
abi ity, thereby depriving the world of the result of genius, 
which mankind cannot afford to loose. In the b.st case 
he starts in life with his full facu ties but wealthless, and 
therefore unable, to turn these facultic s into wealth. He, 
tli ugh naturally 'he stronger and naturally entitled to the 
lion's share of prosperity, starts out in ife actually weak- 
er, than any of his naturally weaker competitors. Where 
natural ability only, aided by due diiligence and efforts 
at improvement, ought to 1 e the measure of individual 
success and merit, we discard it, gi.ing vitality and 
prep nderance, where it does not belong, repressing and 
stunting it, where it natural 1 y exists. 

There is absolutely nothing .0 justi y or even excuse 
such an aberration from Nature. The transmission of 



62 EQUAL CHANCES. 

rank and station has been pounded into the human 
race by the most briral power and most repiehensible 
means in olden tmes and is yet thus upheld in monarch- 
ies, until we came to understand, that it was proper and 
rght. Just so with inheritance of thrones, we were 
taught by our oldest leligious works, that every ruler 
governed the masses by God's g ace and even Jesus 
Chris 1 commands to give to Ceasar, what is Ceasar's. 
Despite this there were some hard heads, who could not 
Comprehend, why some should be born to rule, others 
to serve; who believed in political equality of man and 
iv h ) rebelled against the tyrannical laws of despots and 
who for their pains in the interest of their fellowmen 
either were depr ved of liberty or had their hard heads 
cut off by the .-word of ihi executioner. And yet for 
every one so cut off, hydraheaded others grew up ad- 
v eating the same princi les of lil.ert ■, in defence of 
whic their predecessors suffered and died, struggling 
against the al nest absolute power of oppression, until 
at last the flame o lib .ry burned brightly, until their 
efforts were crowned with success, and upon the debris 
of an empire a republic was inst. tilted, this again to be 
conquered and to give place to an empire. 

The war was fierce end of long duration. Victory 
perched once on one side, then on the other, to at last 
rest on die banner of liberty, for there can hardly be a 
doubt, that a majority of the civilized people in all 
countries to-day harbors republican sentiments, even 
if it does not express them, and that as great a major- 
ity to-day feel, that there is s mething wrong in the 
unequal distribution of wealth. It took thousands of 



EQUAL CHANCES. ?>3 

3'ears to accomplish this, 'and usurpation of political 
power s not \ et dead; it yet lives, but is condemned 
in theory and considerably reduced in practice. The 
people have at last sha en off the shackles of vener- 
ation c used by ages of habit To-day we inhabitants 
of the United States, not seeing the beam in our own 
eyes, can hardly comprehend, how other nations can 
bow their necks under their political yokes and pity 
them for their la^k of energy and courage. Yet a step 
is gained; what was formerly regarded as perfectly 
right is looked down upon to-day as radically wrong, if 
it did take thousands of years to change our minds, 
blinded as they were by reverence to antiquity of 
wrong. 

Just so with inheritance of wealth. Pounded into 
the heads of our ancestors by force, it became, in the 
course of a very long time, second nature to us ; we 
came to regard a terrible wrong as a sacred right, and 
to-day there will be probably only a small minority in 
favor cf its cessation. The greater part of our fellow 
men will require a long time to embrace the theory 
expressed and defended in this work, though they might 
not be able to successfully contradict its arguments. 
Habit has a great deal to do in our views and the aver- 
age man cannot easily free himself from its chains. For 
the benefit of the masses an illustration may not be out 
of place. 

We suppose, that an inhabitant of some unknown 
sphere, where different laws and habits rule, should 
visit our country, totally unacquainted with our laws 
resDecting inheritance of property Going through the 



04 EQUAL CHAKTCES. 

streets of one of our large cities he and his conductor 
would encounter a man with tattered garments and 
exterior denoting extreme poverty,, but a head and 
physiognomy giving evidence of Nature's diploma ot 
nobility; the curiosity of tie observing stranger would 
of course be aroused, and he would ask: "How does 
it happen, that yonder man, whose head,, phrenologicaily 
considered, indicates benevolence and t:;e highest 
mental ability, should exhibit the unmistakable evi- 
dences of poverty? It is stiange, that a man so en- 
dowed should not own riches. It looks to me a. \f he 
ought to possess them and use them for the benefit oi 
his fellow men; he ought t ) be an ornament of society 
and a benef ctor of mankind. " . His guide might be 
forced to reply; "You have judged your man cor- 
rectly; there never lived a better man and he h s 
greatly benefitted the world by one of the greatest 
inventions of all ages- But not having inherited any 
wealth, he had not the required means to bring the 
child of his genius before the public. Becoming dis- 
couraged r.nd having nothing to live on, he met another 
man, possessing only a very slight amount of brains, 
but a lot of money; the latter bought the invention for 
a song and accumulated from it an immense amount of 
money. " The stranger would shake his head, as if not 
fully comprehending the exp anation, and walk on a 
while in meditative silence. A gilded cairiage, to 
which is harnessed a pair of beautiful, spirited horses, 
who are restrained by a coachman in shining livery, 
attracts his attention. A gentleman is just bowing his 
adieus to a lady and prepares to enter the carriage, the 



EQUAL CHANCES. 6$ 

door of which is held open by a liveried servant. 
"Here is another contrast," our stranger wouU remark. 
"Here we have a man whose phrenological structure 
and physiognomy denote a very inferior mind, small 
forehead with large animal propensities, more beast 
than human being, yet he seems well endowed with this 
world's goods. His appearance must be dece.ving; he 
certainly must have done something great to entitle 
him to such privileges." 

The guide repli s: "You have again formed a correct 
opinion, that man is a beast in human form. He has 
never done anything good, that anybody knows of, ex- 
cept for himself, bur a great deal of harm, from the pen- 
alties of which the technicalities of law protected him. 
His mind is not nearly of average capacity; but he has 
inherited a great amount of money and other property 
from his parents and by virtue of our inheritance laws he 
lias greatly the advantage over that poor man." "I am 
glad, " the stranger would exclaim, with an air of the most 
perfect disgust, "not to be an inhabit nt of such a coun- 
try a yours and a subject to such absurd laws, by reason 
of which a tru y great and good man is forced to live in 
poverty, a man, who, as you admitted, has done great 
good to his fellowmen, is almost allowed to starve, while 
another, with none of the former's ability and sterling 
merit, who has never done any good, but a lot of h.rm 
and who has no other claims, than to be the son of a 
rich father, is a lowed to revel in luxury and to live in 
sp'cndor; I believe I shall not stay here any longer; I 
shall go back immediately to my own country, where 
more humane laws rule. " 



66 EQUAL CHANCES. 

Such wouM be the verdict of every impartial ob- 
server; of every one, whose mind is not biased by habit, 
which causes us to regard old wrongs as right, and in 
olden times and other countries than ours it takes an 
immense time to overcome such aberrations of Mind. 
While we perhaps find as much trouble to rid ourselves 
of habit as other nations, our liberal institutions allow 
every one to express his ideas' as he thinks best, and 
owing to this advantage, we require not as much time 
to effect improvements, as n countries where such liberty 
does not exist. Without fear of dungeon or death the 
freedom of the Press gives us greater facilities to inform 
ourselves and int rchange opinions in regard to our 
condition; it enables us to have stati-tics to see in what 
direction our interes's point, and we may be taught to 
know our o^vn might'. After having overcome the force 
of habit, despite the fact, that improvemen s or at- 
tempts at such, are hooted at by the masses, ridiculed 
by minds not able to comprehend advanced theories, 
these same theories have broken through the surround- 
ing clouds and to-day shine brightly like the sun, never 
more to be h dden. So it was with a istocracy, so with 
the institution of s'avery, which were defended by 
church and laymen, but had to d e anyway, never more 
to be revived in their former shape. So it will be with 
the last vestige of slavery; the world may hoot and 
ridicule, but at last it will acknowledge the justice of 
the demand for equal chances. 

The interests not only of the majority, but of all 
human beings demand the abolition of transmission of 
property by inheritance, as they demanded the aboli- 



EQUAL CHANCES. 67 

tion of hereditary aristocracy, or that of slavery, or 
any othe; of these wrongs, which have ceased to 
be regarded as such on account of their antiquity, 
because we have become so accustomed to them 
as to regard them as right, but gradually we be- 
came so enlightened as to perceive their true demerits 
If any one to-day wanted to reint oduce aristocracy or 
s avery in our country, which once were reg:rded as 
right, he would encounter the condemnaiion and ab- 
horrence of all people; he would be branded' as the most 
infamous villain, and, yet not m ny decades ago the 
s'ave trade was regarded as just as goo 1 a calling as any 
other, in which persons even of christian professions 
indulged ; to-day we would hang these to a yard arm. 
The world is progressing — it has decreed that slavery is 
wrong, that hereditary majesty and aristocracy are 
wrong, and it will decree that hereditary transmission 
of w.alth is wrong. If our eyes are not yet strong 
enough to penetrate the gloom of the breaking morn,- 
they will become stronger with increasing light, and the 
demand will make itself enforced : that, while everyone 
must be protected in the enjoyment of the fruits of his 
own labor, the result of it shall not be transmitted to 
heirs, but must revert to the State — or, in other words, 
that all belongs to all; that by the right of the stronger, 
within the limits of beneficial laws, anyone may obtain 
such part of this wealth as he can accumulate by his 
physical or mjntal labor; that he may enjoy it as he se s 
fit as long as he lives, but that it returns to the Sate, 
which will distribute it at a certain age equally anion j 
all the children of the State. 



68 EQUAL CHANCES. 

CHAPTER XL 

IS IT RIGHT? 

At last the heresy is out; the unthinking part of the 
people have no further use for this work; they are done 
with it; the idea to rob the children of the wealth 
which their fathers accumulated is too preposterous to 
be entertained a moment! The men though, who 
think, will not reject it at once; they will take time for 
consideration, and reading further, may find reasons to 
convince them that the robbery is on both sides; that 
what rich children under the old system gain in pro- 
perty is lost in undeve oped faculties; that they gain the 
comparatively worthless, and loose the considerably 
more valuable, which is not only a robbery to them and 
a greater loss than money ever can restore, but also a 
loss to the word. Before we enter upon further con- 
sideration of this side of the question, we must deter- 
mine what ought to be determined first in all questions 
— whether the proposed reform is morally ri ht or 
wrong? We might here start with the assertion, th t 
there actually exists neither right or wiong, that these 
terms are only used in a relative sense, to express what 
we regard as one or the other, and that these opinions 
— as we all know — are subject to changes; that there is 
as little absolute right or wrong as th.re is day or night, 
heat or cold, good or evil; that they a e only different 
degrees of the same thing. But we waive this way of 
getting out of difncukie.s, defining right as Webster's 
dictionary gives it. In one place it defines as right 
" that which is conformable to the Supreme rule is 



EQUAL CHANCES. 69 

absolutely right, and is called right, simply without 
relation to a special end. The opposite to right is 
wrong. " According to this definition our plan is ab- 
solutely light, being firmly planted upon the natural 
law of the right of the stronger, as it i > conformable to 
the Supreme rule of nature. Nature can not err, but 
man has erred in transferring power — for wealth is a 
power — to the weaker, and maintaining : le weaker in 
his possessions ag inst the s ronger; therefore, absol- 
utely speak'ng, our plan is light. We find another 
■definition in Webster's dictionary, viz., " fit, suitable, 
proper, becoming, just, true, etc.;" wrong as the op- 
posite of those. Now, whatever is just, suitable, etc., 
to one or a minority can certainly not be right; these 
terms must bea relation to a majority, without injuring 
or depriving a minority of its just privilege . If it can 
be proven that under the < Id system nobody was bene 
fitted and eve-yb dy injur d under the proposed new 
one eve ybody would be benefitted and nobody injur cl, 
we will have nothing to add <"0 the argument. We not 
only here make the assertion, but shall proceed to 
prove, that the new theory would not only benefit a 
majority, without t espissing upon the rights of a 
minority, but also that the whole race would reap 
advantages fr.m it. If this can be demonstrated, the 
question of right will be established without a shadow 
of a doubt. 

" Necessity is the mother of inventions," As an old 
proverb says, and also the mother of all improve- 
ments; in fact, nothing whatever exists which i \ the 
economy of nature is not necessary. Necessity of 



7© EQUAL CHANCES - . 

exertion is removed in the possessor of excessive 
wealth, it furnishing without great effort all that heart 
desires or the passions crave. It, therefore, fol- 
lows — and experience teaches — that great possessions 
injure character, mind and body, by removing the 
necessity of exercise of mental and physical abilities. 
We find this proven by the fact, that the greater part of 
our greatest men do not spring from wealthy parents,, 
but from the midd e — and some even from the lowest — 
classes. Without any great financial resources thrown 
upon a merciless world, and, therefore, their faculties 
being constantly exercised, the latter keep constantly 
growing, becoming strong and stronger, until the son of 
a farmer or mechanic lands upon the presidential chair 
or some other place of eminence, while the son of 
we.dt.hy parents, early informed of his exalted position, 
th'nks it beneath his dignity, and unnecessary, to study 
and work all the time, like the poor boy. Educated to 
regard money as almighty and to look down upon those 
who possess less than his parents, he thinks himself a 
superior being, who can control his inferiors in wealth 
by the power of his future wealth; no need for him to 
slave and deny himself the pleasures which the lower 
classes are not ablj to enjoy. Splendid mental abilities 
are thus wasted; a life of aimlessness follows, and at last 
death ensues, which does not affect the world, as the 
world derives no benefit from such a life. The know- 
ledge of future possessions of relative great wealth is a 
positive injury, and is so regarded by many of our most 
eminent men, who still strive to gather as much wealth 
as possible for their offspring. 



EQUAL CHANCES. 7 1 

How much talent is thus wasted cannot be conjee 
tured, nor how much waste of it is caused by poverty, 
both causes producing the same result. It is true that 
very great natural abilities will sometimes rise above too 
lucky or too adverse circumstances, but the greater 
part of talented human beings is not able to do so, they 
either fall by the wayside or have their talents crippled. 
The seeds of a tree are scattered by zephyr and tempest 
over a wide area; some fall upon extremely rich ground, 
some on water, some on rocks, and others again on 
average gcod ground. The first grow luxuriantly; too 
much so for their own good, for the winter's first cold 
bla ts are too severe for their delicate hot-house consti- 
tutions; the next perish on the barren rock, where the 
tender rootlets can not find nourishment; those fallen 
on the water rot or are carried to the ocean; and only 
those are apt to survive which have fallen into just the 
right conditions : they make strong trees, under whose 
shadow the wjary wanderer rests and of whose fruits he 
thankfully pirtakes. So with humanity. Some are 
thrown in the hotbed of wealth and perish at the first 
blasts of adversi y; others die on the barren rock of 
poverty, or the stagnant waters of immorality, and 
only those have a fair chance, whose lot is thrown 
on the average good ground of moderate wealth. 
The latter only are apt to grow like the tree, to be- 
come a credit to themselves and an ornament of 
mankind. 

The argument, that poverty furnishes the necessity for 
exertion, and for this reason develops talent is partly 
right and partly erroneous. Right because poverty 



7? EQUAL CHANCES. 

produces a desire to rise— and consequent efforts; 
wrong because it removes the means to attain to emin- 
ence. To argue, that, because people have risen from 
the lowest depths to the highest positions, poverty 
is an auxiliary to the highe-t. attainments, is just as- 
unreasonable as that the seed fallen on a rock has be- 
come a sturdy tree on account of its having lacked 
nourishment. Sometimes a s?ed, endowed with un- 
usual vitality, happens to find a small fissure filled with 
humus; rain and sunshine cause it to swell and expand, 
and it lives and grows. So man raised in poverty and 
endowed with unusual vitality and energy will s me- 
times find a slim foothold, though all surrounding 
circumstances seem to be hostile; clinging to this with 
marvellous tenacity he expands, and is carried though 
life successfully, while thou ands under Hie same circum- 
stances, but by nature less favored with energy and 
perseverance succumb to the power of adversity. The 
world may have lost innumerable men with th t genius of 
a Mozart or a Beethoven who could no: obtain the 
necessary education, though in the possession of equal 
abilities; it may have produced many Raphaels, who 
were not in circumstances to develop their talents; the 
same may have been the case in regard to men of 
abilities in the line of literature and sciences. Great 
minds have sometimes reached the pinnacle of fame and 
success, but many of them — and more of moderate 
talents — have been lost. Too favorable or unfavora le 
circumstances have robbed the world of more talent 
than ever was developed. There never was a lack of 
great men when the times demanded them, but there 



EQUAL CHANCES. 73 

were frequently times and conditions, when great men. 
had no chance to rise. By our new system (as we 
shall hereafter explain) extreme riches in the hands of 
a few would become almost impossible, extreme poverty 
equally so, except in cases of extreme shiftlessness and 
lack of financial ability, and that medium 'would be 
obtained which furnishes the best basis for the develop- 
ment of natural talent or genius. It won d not remove 
necessity for exertion, but increase it, while it would 
multiply the facilities for improvement, and so would 
not only benefit the lower c'a^ses, but all. 

Is it right? There can be no absolute right existing 
except which is according to natural law; all other rights 
being artificial, changeable, creations of our own human 
fallible mind; ac:ording to this our plan is absolutely 
right. But even according to our common concep- 
tion of the word it is correct, as it would save to the 
world the greater amount of talent, which it produces, 
and which cannot be lost without -erious detriment to 
the happiness and advance nent of all. Our plan, 
therefo e, is not only in the interest of the poor classes, but 
also the privileged, in restoring to the latter the necessity 
of mental and physical labor and consequent develop- 
ment of natural abilities; it benefits the middle class, 
which so far has furni bed the most favorable conditions, 
by al owing i , along with all other classe -, the advan- 
tage of th: talents of all, which must be a blessing to 
all. ' Legislation in accordance with the new theory 
wo Id, th refo. e, not be in the interests of any faction, 
party or class, but in that of the whole human race. 
Any plan that will achieve as much must be in accord- 



74 EQUAL CHANCES. 

ance with the Supreme rule, it must be right, just and 
proper. 

It does not interfere with the just privileges of a 
minority, because that minority has no ri ;ht to expect 
the protection of a larger number contrary to the 
latter's best interests. While it is to the advantage of 
the state to protect its citizens in the enjoyment of their 
justly acquired possessions, which, when more than 
average, are necessarily under the control of a lesser 
number, and, therefore, requiring the protection of the 
larger number, such protection during the life-time of 
the p ssessor is as much as any one can reasonably 
expect — perhaps even a little more, considering human 
nature. The disposition of all human be ngs is more or 
less gripping; we all envy more or less the greater 
wealth of others, and some, not being strong enough to 
resist the temptation rising from his, become thieves; 
but to the honor of the human race stands the glorious 
fact, that only a very small percentage of people is so 
constituted; the greater part cheerfully accords the pro- 
tection of an overwhelming majority, contrary to their 
own desires, and by this protection deprive themselves 
of the coveted wealth, which owes its existence to that 
protection. What riches the privileged class holds, it 
only holds by sufferance, considering that a majority is 
poor; if so allowed to hold them during life is all that it 
can possibly demand. To a c k that sucli sufferance be 
extended beyond the portals of the grave, that the 
children or hens, who have not an iota of natural 
right to the deceased's possessions, be permitted to 
inherit them, is far from reasonable, and people will say 



EQUAL CHANCES. 75 

so, when they once fully understand the question at 
issue. **' If the rich minority has no right to transmit its 
wealth to heirs, it is not wrong to st )p this transmission 
by law; the just privileges of a minority are not in any 
danger; they will not be trespassed upon. If furnishing 
faci ities for the development of ta'ent, which nature 
produces, is an advantage to the world, then such action 
must be just, true, becoming to the inhabitants of the 
world, a'~d the question of right is undoubtedly settled 
beyond di. pute. 

CHAPTER XII. 

ADVANTAGES OF THE PROPOSED REFORM. 

The greatest advantage to be derived from the pro- 
posed plan has been discussed in the last chapter, but 
there are o hers of almost as great importance, which 
more directly touch our material interests, and fcr this 
reason must not be overlooked. We have previously 
spoken of se'fishness, ambition and the desire to accum- 
ulate; we know, that the proper exercise of these traits 
is highly desirable for our civilization, and tint without 
them it would not exist, but we also know, that an undue 
quantity of these traits is very injurious to us; this being 
so, it must be conceded, that any plan tending to res- 
trict them within their proper limits and preventing 
their abuse, is greatly to our advantage. 

The greatest incentive to vast accumuations of wealth 
is undoubtedly the certainty of being able to transmit 
wealth to descendants. The amassing of great property 
not only requires considerable financial ability and the 



76 EQUAL CHANCES. 

constant exercise of it, but also a great amount of per- 
sonal deprivation and anxiety, which would not be 
incurred, if not rewarded by at least an equal amount of 
gratification. Even the preservation of previously ac- 
quired wealth, though less than the accumulation of it, 
necessitates considerable self-sacrifice, it being required 
to be constantly on the alert to pi event schemers from 
attaining possession of it, and to make safe investments. 
This, together with the fear of losing all or part by 
inattention, wrong speculations, robbery or other causes, 
are almost sufficient to counterbalance any satisfaction 
derived from extreme wealth. The possession of money 
for its own sake may make the miser happy, but to the 
average man it is not the money, which confers happi- 
ness, but the desirabilities, which he can obtain through 
its agency for himself or family; the loving father pos- 
sessing say $25,000 knows, that such an amount is fully 
sufficient to provide not only the necessaries, but also 
the luxuries of life for h'mself and wife for the rest of 
their lives; that it will insure a choice education to 
to his children, and that there is on his own and wife's 
account at least no more need of further accumulation. 
But he also knows, that, whatever may be left after 
death, will buy the same necessaries and luxuries for his 
children and, though mistaken, thinks, that it will tend 
to make them happier and raise them h gher in the 
world. Instead of allowing himself all pleasures which 
money can purchase, and to which he is entitled by 
previous labor, he retrenches his expenses as far as 
possible, denying himself these pleasures in the effort 
not only to retain his fortune, but to increase it to as 



EQUAL CHANCES, 77 

great an amount as possible. Instead of returning to 
the common wealth what he has enjoyed during a life- 
time, he grasps more to give to his heirs, and so de- 
prives otherc of it permanently, as far as he cam In- 
stead of enjoying the evening of life, he pursues Lis 
grasping traits, until death ends his career. 

Meanwhile the children have been raised according 
to their station, that is, they may have received a good, 
even a choice edu ration, but in very many cases not 
one to bring out their peculiar talents. Being assured 
of wealth, the trades, for which one or the ot er might 
have shown particular ability, are two low for them; 
their ambition soars higher, the c anting room, the bar, 
the editorial sanrtum, the pulpit or some of the higher 
avocations, for which they might not have any talent 
whatever, are entered, and splendid talents often wasted, 
which under a different system might have been im- 
proved. 

As long as the inherited property lasts, which fre- 
quently is a question of only a very short time, as the 
easily acquired easily takes wings, all goes well, but 
that gone and their overcrowded callings failing to suffi- 
ciently reward subo dinate ability, a life of misery 
follows. Worse yet with the girls; their education is 
of a totally impractical kind, only enabling them to 
preside at the piano or grace the draw ng room or at 
best the kitchen. Hardly allowed exercise in the free 
open air, fearful that the life-giving sunshine might 
injure their velvety complexions,, they find no occasion 
for the healthful development of mind or body. Ten- 
derly guarded against all that might harshly grate on 



78" EQUAL CHANCES', 

their over-developed sensitiveness, they become veri- 
table hot-house plants, unfit to st .nd the cold blasts of 
life. Not being raised for all conditions of life, it 
becomes such a girl not to select the man of her choice- 
as her c< mpanion through life, the man for whom her 
heart yearns and from which union happiness would 
result, but the one who is financially able to k ep her 
in the style to which she has become accustomed: the 
question of matrimony becomes one of money. Mar_ 
lied she is the dependent of her husband, whose equal 
and helpmate .he ought to be, and perhaps loo.ing him 
by death after a few years o." married life she is thrown 
not alone, but unaided upon a cold merciless world. 
The example set by the rich produces the same resu t 
in the lower classes. The sons and daughters oi poor 
people, not being able to amass the wealth of their 
richer neighbors, at least try t ) appear rich to imitate 
them in outward resemblance, in indolence andluxurious- 
ness. So i comes, that in our country the trades are 
neglected by the natives, giving employment to for- 
eigners, that girls prefer to be a burden upon their 
parents until the welcome wooer arrives, instead of 
assisting them in old as;e and making their last lew 
lemaining years a perioJ of rest and contentment. 

More than this, the possession of wealth in the hands 
o." parents produces, if not a desire for the death of the 
parents, at least a greater indifference in such case than 
would follow if there were no pecuniary benefit to be 
expected. We all are only human beings, with human 
frailties and des'res, and where only a life stands be- 
tween those desires and their realization, the less o; 



EQUAL CHANCES. 7'9 

that life is not regretted as much, if not wished for, than 
it would be otherwise, and the balsam of gold d opped 
upon a bleeding heart has its influence. While we do 
not claim, that there are many heartless enough to 
shorten, or wish to have shortened, the days of their 
parents, their benefactors, who have toiled for their 
children, and for whom they sacrificed their best years, 
and to whose welfare they directed their well-meant, 
though mistaken, efforts, we are not wrong in believing 
that in a great many cases the death of father or mo her 
as not nearly as much regretted, that not as many nor as 
scalding tears fall upon their last resting place, as there 
■would be shed, were not the golden expectancy looming 
up at the grave. 

How different it would be if cur inheritance laws were 
revoked, if all wealth amassed during a life-time would, 
at the death of its posses or, return to the state, by it to 
be distributed among all young men and women of a 
certain age; i no one could expect any more as a start 
in life, than another; it would change this world from 
a hell, as it is now to a majority, into a paradise of b iss. 
Knowing, that all would have to start under the same 
circumstances, only with different natural abilities, 
which «man can not control, what a grand inducement 
there would be for everyone, man and woman, to excel 
by individual merit, how the human race wou d 
advance, not only in wealth, but in mind, in character, 
in morality ! Wealth is now our highest boon, and the 
world is in a fervent haste to become rich; natural 
affections are disregarded; charity, that noblest of all 
virtues, slighted; the laws of humanity trampled und.r 



So EQUAL CHANCES'., 

foot; the advancement of mankind, mental and moral,, 
retarded, and natural laws violated. 

Under the old system, now in power r money is not 
our servant, but it became our master, king, idol, at 
whos€ shrine we all kneel I It rules over us with greater 
power,, than tyrants ever exercised; it profligates man- 
hood, and debauches tlu purity of womanhood; it is 
instrumental in filling our penitentiaries and lunatic 
asylums; it incites us to ail crimes; like a blight it d> 
s roys the budding des res of y uth and the forlorn hope 
of old age; it tears asunder the hearts of lovers, steps 
between husband and wife and also breaks the natural 
affections of parents and children to each other; it 
makes our small men gre.it and our great men small; it 
is the instrument of hell, producing more misery of heart 
than Nero or Caligula ever dreamed of; it prostitutes 
our press and rostrum; it turns the leaders of the 
masses into traitors and our halls of legislature iito pub- 
lic marts I Its golden sceptre is felt in the palaces of the 
rich as well, as in the huts of the poor; it has pe meated 
all society, making all its slaves; none ever has escaped 
its injurious power; high or low, good or bad, man or 
woman : everyone has to acknowledge its power. 

And yet we cannot do without it, but we can restrain 
wealth within proper limits. To claim, :hat any system 
could possibly be devised outside of barbarism to van- 
quish all the evils enumerated, would be an absurdity, 
but it would be equally absurd to deny, that our plan 
would tend to make the world wiser and better; that it 
would prevent to a considerable extent the abuse of 
money and the evils resulting therefrom; that it would 



EQUAL CIIANXES. 8l 

reduce them to a minimum. Among others, it would 
solve the ten hour question, as well as rave woman to 
equality with man; it would break the power of monop- 
olies, by making large fortunes undesirable; it would 
restore to us the small manufacturer, the middle class, 
which is now rapidly becoming extinct; scattering 
millions of dollars, now in the hands of a few, it would 
restore thousands of dollars to millions of people, of 
which they have been robbed; it would preserve and 
develop the talent which is now lo>t, and which the 
world needs in its onward march; levelling the dis- 
tinctions of property, it woird allow everyone to ttand 
on Irs merits, and by discarding artificial eminence it 
would, elevating our aims, produce real superiority; it 
would make our political leaders our friends and defend- 
ers, instead of our foes and betrayers; it would replace 
natural affinity for unnatural ties; it would, by relieving 
us of an undue amount of competition, prolong our 
lives and decrease disease; it would elevate woman; 
doing away with unnatural avidity, it. would create a 
greater demand for rest as well as labor; it would give 
employment to all who wish it and are in need of it, 
men, as well as women, and the labor agitations, now 
so depressing to our commerce, would be quieted on 
the broad basis of a supply equivalent to an increased 
demand. 

To prove all this, let us suppose, that our plan has 
been carefully considered by the people, adopted and 
carried into effect by proper laws; while the possessor 
of wealth, entitled to the fruits of his own labor, is left 
undisturbed in his possessions, at his death his property 



82 



EQUAL CHANCES. 



reverts to the state. According to statistics, revealed 
by a census, the total wealth of a state is determined, 
and every citizen of either sex at the age of maturity 
receives his pro rata. Some will take this inheritance 
in land, some in town lots and buildings, some in mer- 
chandise, others in money. Some will spend it, others 
will save and add to it. The spendthrift his had his 
share, he must take the consequences of his actions ; if 
he has not the strength of character to improve lis 
habits, a life of poverty will follow, but not of such abject 
poverty as we now have, as it will be far easier to make 
a living under the new system than under that now pre- 
va ling. In spending his inheritance he has injured 
nobody but himself, and benefitted those of more finan- 
cial abi.ity, who rake in his loss; his disability enriches 
others and improves business. Others, who well invest 
their share and guide their business, of whatever kind 
that may be, with economy and foresight increase 
their means; in the course of time they become pos- 
sessors of considerable wealth. Right in here comes 
one of the greatest advantages of the new pLn. The 
lucky possessor of wealth, having acquired a compe- 
tency or a sufficient amount to sati fy all reasonable 
desires, having provided sufficiently for a rainy day, 
and knowing that he cannot transmit his possessions to 
children or other heirs, and considering, that for this 
reason there is no use in further accumulations, takes 
things easier during the remainder of his life; he gives 
up the grasping habits, which now prevail; he does net 
slave himself almost to death in workshop, salesroom, or 
on the farm, but gives a chance to others who need 



EQUAL CHANCES. 8j[ 

employment, and whom he liberally rewards for their 
se. vices, thereby giving another lift to business. If of 
a pushing, energetic disposition, for men of which class 
labor is a necessity, he may work as usual, trying to 
make money, but spends it liberally. He clothes his 
wife and children as well as his means allow; allows 
them all the pleasures and luxuries to which, in his 
judgment, they are entitled, at the same time rigidly 
enforcing an education according to the children's 
peculiar talents irrespective of wealth, as he well knows, 
that their future success or failure altogether depend on 
individual merit. He does not hesitate to make all 
improvements, and purchase books and works of art, 
which his artistic taste may demand ; all this will tend to 
m\ke business better, giving employment to the unem- 
ployed, diligent laborer, increasing his prospects and 
advancing art, science and literature; if of a benevolent 
disposition the wealthy man endows institutions of 
learning or charity with some of his surplus, thereby 
helping the unfortunate or furnishing the world greater 
facilities for advancement; he does not drive away the 
poor deserving widow, who recently lost her husband 
and protector, and who, heartsick and di^pairing, asks 
for assistance, with the words, " I pay my taxes to 
support such as you in a poorhouse, " but he goes to 
that widow and, unasked, gives her as much as he thinks 
prudent and well applied; he has not the heart to say 
to the poor man, whose house was consumed by fire; 
" You ought to have insured your property; I do. not 
assist people, who lack the sense to fcake the necessary 
precautions," but he buys the lumber and orders some 



84 EQUAL GHANCES. 

carpenter to build that man a better house, than he ever 
lived in \ seeing a boy who, seems to be above the rest 
in intellect, he takes an interest in him, sends him to 
college or university, gives him the education of an 
artist or a scientist, and so develops a ta ent which, 
without his aid, would have been lost. Having no use for 
increased wealth he does all these kind acts, and that 
exampli will spread in a wider and still widening circle, 
until poverty and suffering from it are unknown and 
this earth becomes a paradise, which it Would be without 
cur senseless laws, producing the undue love of gold, 
which is the curse of mankind. 

There is another class of people, who are rather tired 
and therefore are not inclined to any great amount cf 
exertion; who are satisfied to keep the wolf from the 
door; they only work, when it becomes necessary tc do 
so to keep themselves and family provided with what is 
indispensab'y necessary to sustenance. We have such 
people now, and always will have them; but instead of 
their being a detriment to society, they are an advan- 
tage, as they give a better chance to those who are of a 
different disposition. Human nature under the new 
system will be the same, but the present inducements 
for great wealth and greed being removed, the nobler 
qualities of men will come out unrestricted; there will 
be a more equal distribution of wealth and greater 
faci.ities for acquiring a moderate amount of it; the 
natural cons quence will be that people will work less; 
the feverish tension, which now pervades the wor d, will 
give way to contentment; insanity, the result of over- 
strained nerves and abilities, will decrease; drunken- 



EQUAL CHANCES. 85 

eiess, now a prevailing, pernicious habit, will be reduced 
as the laborer's aims are elevated; as he then can 
liope to become equal to his employer, receives better 
wages and has more facilities to improve his mind, 
while the overworked lawyer, statesman and merchant 
wi 1 not need the stimulating influence of intoxicants to 
relieve the extreme tension of his nerves, the conse- 
quence of extreme artificial competition; penitentiaries 
poor-houses and other great institutions of our glorioiii 
civilization, will be reduced in number and in the num- 
ber of other inhabitants; labor organizations will cease to 
exist, because the rich employers, not having the same 
benefit of the money, which gave rise to their greed, will 
voluntarily increase the wages of their employees to a 
reasonable compensation ; our railroad managers, for the 
same reason, will not charge as exorbitant rates to their 
patrons; the increased demand for labor with remunera- 
tive wages will shorten the houis of labor, thereby re- 
moving the ten hour agitation, giving die laborer more 
time for recreation and cultivation of mind, and a more 
contented state of mind of that class will follow; in 
place of male la')or lost, it will give employment to 
women for suitable kinds of work, and so rectify th^.t 
crying wrong to woman. 

It would, also, in another regard raise woman's lot; 
creating occasion for the exercise of woman's tabnts, 
these will be developed to a greater and greater extent 
as the demand for woman's work increases. No more 
will she be the dependent of her husband, or at best his 
tenderly beloved doll, but his equal, if not in many 
instances his superior. There might be cited hundreds 



S6 EQUAL. CHANGES. 

of examples- of noble r brave and wise women, who Tr.Tre 
guided empires as successfully as any man ever did r 
who have elevated man to their own high plateau of 
thought, who have shown millions of inferior men the 
true way. We could not help to admire this true great- 
ness; but we regarded these women as exceptions; we 
have denied and still deny their sisters the light of 
suffrage or of equal chances with the stronger sex; we 
have treated them as inferiors instead of human beings. 
Break their bonds, give them equal chances with us; let 
their talents be improved, and after the lapse of a reason- 
able time there will be very few men not willing to 
acknowledge their equality, and very few, who will dare 
to treat them as dependents, denying them the privileges 
to which as human beings they are entitled. If our 
plan would accomplish nothing but this one object, it 
would thereby alone establish its justice. If the blood 
spilled in our late war, and thousands of millions spent 
in its prosecution are an equivalent to the liberty of 
four millions of black slaves r will not the liberty of about 
thirty millions of females in the United States justify the 
execution of a plan r that can be carried into effect with" 
out a drop of blood or any financial loss, and will not 
injure any one, but wiil result in greater happiness, and 
that will erase all those social evils, which are now a 
stain upon the human race. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

OBJECTIONS. 

After having reviewed some of the advantages of the 
proposed reform, it may not be out of order to consider 



EQUAL CHANCES. 87 

soTne objections which may be brought forward and, if 
possible, refute them. The main one among these is 
the claim, that it is wrong to deprive the children of the 
justly acquired wealth of their parents. Having pre- 
viously discussed this at length, we refer the reader to a 
previous chapter, where he will find sufficient proof of the 
justice of the reform; we will turn cur attention to objec- 
tion No. 2, l< That a change of our inheritance laws 
would annihilate business enterprise;" this also fails 
vlien critically considered. Business will flourish more, 
and be more remunerative under the proposed system 
than it ever was before. Men of energy and determina- 
tion will work with brains or hands, whenever ihere is 
sufficient inducement for such labor: whenever it 
premises reward either in 'lie shape of satisfied ambition 
or in the accumulation of money, as the purchasing 
agent of almost everything tending to greaer comfort 
and happiness. If anarchy ruled, and nobody could 
firmly count upon the enjoymen of the fruits of his own. 
labor; if the rijht of the stronger individual were pre 
vailing without being restricted by the opposing power 
of all citizens of a state, then these fears would be well 
found d; our rai roads would cease to be operated, the 
Lum of business would become ^ilmced, our factories 
would stand idle; art, literature and sciences would be 
forgotten; civilization become a thing of the pas. and 
barbarism again embrace the world. Selfishness is the 
main-spring of all our actions, and i: exacts its reward; 
without this it would cease to ac\ If this spring is 
wound too strong, it will wear out the machinery or 
its.lf; if, on the contrary, too weak, the m chinery will 



88 ZQUAL CHANCES. 

run too slow or stand still. So far this spring has 
exerted entirely too much po\ver r as we see by the results. 
We now propose to weaken it so far, as to let it have its ; 
natural strength, but depriving it of the power artificially 
imparted by man. We give every individual the perfect 
right to grasp a reasonable amount of the world's good s, 
which he obtains by the exercise of the talents imparted 
to him by nature; we still protect him in the enjoyment 
of the fruits of his own labor, allowing him all the comfort 
and happiness which he can derive from them. His 1 bor 
provides him with food and clothing, with books, music r 
paintings, houses, lands, in short with almost all that he 
may desire; it gives him his proper rank in society, his 
station among men ; it makes his home attractive, and 
furnishes leisure to enjoy his possessions ; if of a higher 
order, it elevates him above his fellowmen, either secur- 
ing high political or literary honors or the fame of the 
artist and the scientist ; it provides all these advantages, 
not only to himself but also to his family; it enables him 
to supply its members liberally with everything which 
they need or desire; it secures to his children a good 
education, which, when supported by the requisite 
talent, will bring the same advantages to them, which he 
enjoys; it gives him the security of spending his old age 
in contentment and free from care, which, without the 
fruits of labor would be passed in deprivation and 
sorrow. These advantages certainly ought to be suffi- 
cient to prompt every man to the utmost exercise of his 
abilities to amass a competency. After having reached 
this the exertions would either cease or, if thought indis- 
pensable for contentment, they would continue proba- 



EQUAL CHANCES. 89 

bly in a more moderate degree. In case of cessation 
some one else, not yet having acquired a sufficient 
amount of wealth, would find a welcome opening, allow- 
ing him the same chances to which his predecessor owed 
his success; instead of annihilating business enter- 
prise, we would find it existing to the same degree, 
while bu iness facilities and openings would be con- 
siderably increased; men would work, as they now do, 
but would relax their efforts when a certain amount — 
differing with the dispositions of different men — was 
insured, then would let another have a chance; busi- 
ness enterprise would be the same, only more persons 
would' enjoy the benefits of it; instead of destroying 
the main-spring of nature, it would produce just the 
right tension for the benefit of mankind, to work har- 
moniously for the happiness of a 1 concerned. 

Anoth.r point which the opposition may raise, is 
that wealth so divided would not be sufficiently concen- 
trated for utilization in large enterprizes, such as rail- 
roads, telegraph or telephone lines, coal mines, etc., 
requiring for their existence and maintenance very large 
capital. People under the new system would save 
money as well as under the old and would be just as 
anxious to find secure and well paying inves ments as 
such institutions offer, the only difference being, that 
there would be a greater number of shareholders than 
^there are now, and consequently less exercise of that 
individual arbitrary power, of which we now complain 
and of which we now suffer; the power now wielded by 
our great railroad kings, possessing hundreds of millions 
of dollars and controling thousands of miles of railroad, 



90 EQUAL CHANCES. 

would be in the hands of thousands of men possessing 
smaller capital; standard oil companies would become 
impossible; .the war against great monopolies ended by 
their total defeat and annihilation; coal famines pro- 
hibited, and the poor be enabled to warm their chilly- 
bodies in cold winter weather. It would accomplish 
what any other plan so far has failed to do, and it would 
be worth while to try our plan, to see whether by it the 
people will achieve the great victory and rid themselves 
of the crying oppression caused by monopolies. As 
now managed there has been great injury done to us 
by the extreme consolidation of capital, the greater part 
of the wealth of the United States has been swallowed 
by monopolies, and their downfall a'one would be amply 
sufficient to justify the revocation of our present inheri- 
tance laws. But opponents reply that such vast enter- 
prises will become impossibilities; that r.ilroads cannot 
be built and operated with so many shareholders.* We 
cannot grant this argument to be true; but, supposing it 
to be so, what difference would it make? Could not the 
Federal Government, as other governments do, build, 
equip and run railroads as well as individuals? If such 
were the"* case, it would be greatly to the advantage of 
the inhabitants of our conntry. Passage and freight 
transportation might be furnished, as now the forward- 
ing of letters, at actual cost, and the money now thrown 
into the hands of never satisfied Croesuses be retained in 
the hands of the people. There is entirely too much* 
power entrusted to individuals, by which they can, if they 
choose, make and unmake cities, and even states, or 
force them to submit to their dictates. Patch-work like 



EQUAL CHANCES. . 9 1 

the Inter-state Commerce Bill, not intended to benefit 
the people, will never achieve any great practical good, 
the only means of granting people justice in regard to 
transportation being the transfer of all the railroad lines 
in the country to the federal government. 

" The natural love, ".the opposition claims, " which 
parents entertain towards their children, make your plan 
abhorrent to every man, who has any human feeling at all] 
a man would not be a man, to agree to have his children 
robbed of their just inheritance and to divide the fruits 
of a life's toil with the children of yonder drunkard or lazy 
good-for-noth : ng, who has never done anthing in his life- 
time to improve h's own condition or that of his children, 
Your plan is horrid, unnatural, perfectly revolting. There 
are several points in this objection which we shall endea- 
vour to refute in their turn. Human nature is the same 
in rich and poor; whether the heart beats under broad- 
cloth or a cotton blouse, it beats in love to offspring. 
This feeling is right and natural; nobody would do away 
with it if he could; it is deeply implanted in the hearts 
of human beings, and is found in animals; it prompts us 
to the noblest sacrifices and awakens in us the holiest 
emotions; it is the most unselfish passion, loving for 
naught than the sake of the loved; animals will fight to 
death in defence of their young, and human beings rush 
into all dangers, into the very jaws of destruction to 
rescue their children from danger and it also suppresses 
all that is grand and noble in our character to the mis- 
taken ideas of parental duties. No doubt, .the wealthy 
love then ch Idren, but does this affection surpass that 
of the poor in degree, is it not of the same kind? Do 



92 EQUAL GHANCES. 

the lower classes not lavish any affection on they: off- 
spring? If there is no difference in the love of the 
different classes in kind or degree, is there not any more 
aggregrate of affection in the lower classes than in the 
privileged? The poorer, representing the larger num- 
ber must certainly harbor more of it, than the richer 
minority. Undoubtedly, it would not be proper for the 
masses to acknowledge a superiority of love in the 
lesser number and in consequence of their love fo: their 
offspring they must be prompted by it to action, as it 
prompts the animal to resistance to greater strength, as 
it prompts man to rescue it from danger. If the priv- 
ileged classes cannot understand, that riches injure their 
children, if they see fit to resist the revocation of our 
inheritance laws by legal means — such is their privilege, 
but the result cannot for a moment be doubted — the 
stronger will win. Presuming, that they will not be in 
favor of a change of these laws, we can appreciate their 
feelings, but cannot help considering the feelings of those, 
who see other children enjoy, what their own are de- 
prived of, and who have as much right to wish and enact 
such change, as the other party has, to de ire its defeat. 
AVhat would be repugnant to the feelings of one class, 
is desirable to the other and parental love will cause the 
latter to enact, what the minority condemns; what is 
abhqrrent to the one, is justice and sacred to the other 
class. As in a great many other questions, repugnance 
and abhorrence would not play as prominent a part, if 
we could only see things in their true light; if we could 
bury'our prejudices, engendered by injustice and main 
tained by force of habit and veneration of antiquity: 



EQUAL CHANCES. 93 

hut, unluckily for the progress of the human race, we 
cannot easily shake off this habit, and frequently do not 
perceive, what is or is not to our advantage. Every 
proposed reform, however righteous, meets the most 
determined opposition, which only ceases after a lapse 
of time, which is a loss to the world. Eut after such 
reforms have conquered and their results established by 
experience, they seem so extremely simple, like the egg 
of Columbus, and we are apt to ask ourselves, how it 
came, that we so strongly opposed a simple proposition 
to our own good. ■ We now wish to preserve to our 
heirs our wealth and neglect to give them the far greater 
advantage of education according to peculiar talents, 
assisted by the knowledge that their success depend:; 
■solely on their own merits, on the fullest expansion oi 
those talents, which would gain wealth for them. We 
give them the least valuable, the easiest lost possession 
— gold — thereby depriving them of the most va liable: 
self-reliance upon merit. Mind and body not being 
developed according to natural gifts, wealth, if lost, 
becomes thereafter unattainable, but with the common 
share to start with, moderate ability and the wid j world 
offering equal chances to all, success cannot be doubt- 
ful. It is missunderstood affection, which causes us to 
leave our wealth to our children, and this error is a 
cause of misery to all casses. We injure those, whom 
we strive to benefit and not only those, but all, 

The argument, that our weakh, acquired by persona] 
deprivation, self-denial and mental or physical toil ought 
to belong to us and after our decease to our heirs and 
not those of yonder drunkard or good-fcr-nothing u 



ff4 EQUAL CHANCES. 

right, so far as the parents are concerned: the man 
who is willing to work with hand or brain and does sx 
work, is entitled to his proper reward and any one, whc 
does not labor, but spends his days in idleness, must 
take the consequences of his inactivity, but it is down- 
right injustice and cruelty to extend this to the children. 
Such argument implies the acknowledgment cf the 
unjust principle, that children ought to be punished foi 
the sins of their parents., that they should be denied 
their rights, because the fathers were improvident. In 
■very many cases the rich man's son fe a good-for-nothing - , 
the poor lazy man's a boy of energy and intellect; the 
wealthy man is not willing to help the good-for-nothing's 
worthy children, but regards it as a sacred duty to assist 
to a higher undeserved position his own good-for- 
nothing children. 

The opposition has not^done fault-finding yet; there 
are a few more objections it raises, among them this 
one, that, according to our own admission, riches take 
wings easily and are generally spent in the second 
generation; that nature rectifies such wrongs, This is 
true to a certain extent; frequently the degenerate sons 
of wealthy parents seem to regard it as a special duty to 
spend their earnings as fast as possible in riotous living 
and debauchery and they often succeed in a very short 
time. On the other hand, our largest fortunes have not 
been amassed in one generation, the superior financial 
ability of the father having been transmitted, though 
perhaps in a less degree, to the descendants. It requir- 
ing less talent to retain and add to existing wealth, than 
to originate it,, it was comparatively easy for them to not 



- EQUAX CHANCES. 95 

only keep the father's possessions, but also to greatly 
increase them. As examples of such we might mention 
the Rothschilds in Europe, the Astors, Vanderbilts, 
Lorillard's in America, who have accumulated, pre- 
served and increased their accumulations during several 
generations. With the great start, which these men 
have, and the therefrom resulting great facilities to make 
money, a few such men, with moderate financial talent 
succeeding in the same families, might after a few 
.generations have passed, own the greatest pa:t of the 
world. The fact, that nature tries to rectify such evils, 
is not proof, that those evils do not exist or ought not to 
be combattcd by man, but is most convincing evidence 
of their existence, and ought to urge us to discontinue 
them. If nature generally relieves an overburdened 
stomach, this is no sign or admonition, that we should 
■a ways overtax it, because nature gets rid of the surplus, 
but it proves the violation of a natural law, which, if 
persisted in, will undermine health, and is a sure warn- 
ing of nature to comply with her laws, before we have 
done irreparable injury. 

" If all the wealth now existing in the world," says the 
opposition, " were divided to-day, how long would it 
last, until it would be scattered, wealth, as now. on one 
side, and poverty on the other?" Not very long, we 
admit, and it would not be desirable to have equality 
of property or any other kind of equality. In nature 
we do not find a tendency to the similar, but to the dis- 
similar, unequal; it is just as little in the interest ot 
mankind, to have equality in any direction among men 
as among trees and grasses. The world owes all its 



f)6 EQUAL CIIAXCTS'. • 

evolution to this tendency to the dissimikr; we want 
differences in plants, in animals, in the material interests 
and the physical and mental qualities of men. Under 
a mistaken idea nations have asked for equality, liberty 
and fraternity, demanding the impossible. We, recog- 
nizing this, do not ask for either of these; we do not 
want equality, but equality of chances. This once 
granted, liberty will follow, and the artificial induce- 
ments for the gratification of selfishness removed, the 
bonds of fraternity and humanity will bind all human, 
beings in sympathy and charity. 

If would be hsrd at the present time to predict, how 
many mere objections may or will be raised; any such 
shall receive proper consideration m due time. We 
now shall answer only one more. Our opponents- 
claim, that our plan is impracticable, because it cannot 
be carried into effect, a^ parents will find means, to 
counteract any laws made to remove the right of 
inheritance. This objection may be valid or it may 
not, but even supposing, that we cannot fully enforce 
such laws as far as money is concerned, we certainly 
can force anybody to submit to the legally expressed 
will of a majority in regard to real estate, which cannot 
be hidden or secretly transfers d.z if inheritance laws 
were revoked, they would like all other enactments, first 
meet a determined resistance, which, after the advan- 
tages resulting therefrom, are known and appreciated, 
would give way to the endorsement of the former 
opponents and would at last be regarded as just 
as binding and would in all probability be as much 
observed, as our present laws against murder and theft. 



EQUAL CHANCES. 97 

Even if t' ere should be a link missing in the new plan, 
we should remember, that there is the same defect in 
Darwin's theory, which is nevertheless regarded as sub- 
stantially correct by a great majority of mankind and 
missing links may yet be discovered. If anyone should 
have predicted, when steam was first observed to po sess 
power, that it would be made serviceable foi all the 
purposes, for which it is now used, people would have 
called that man a phantast and called that idea absurd 
and impracticable ; but since that time thousands of our 
best inventive minds have worked on the utilization of 
steam-power, first cons:ructing a simple defective ma- 
chine, adding to this improvement after improvement, 
until to-day we have engines, which are almost perfec- 
tion. The theory of steam-power was correct, and the 
result is correct; so with all improvements or reforms; 
they are practical provided they rest upon the firm 
basis of a correct theory. It is the aim of the author 
of this work, to !ay his theory before his readers; to have 
it tried in the crucible of rea on, which will find it either 
worthy or worthless, and adopt or reject it on its merits. 
In the first case, we shall have a simple, defective ma- 
chine at first, but the great minds of thinking men will 
invent improvement upon improvement, until the prac- 
ticability of the theory has been estabished and our 
political machinery runs without the friction, which we 
now experience. 



;93 EQUAL CHANCES. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

A NEW PARTY. 

It is one thing, to advocate a reform, another to point 
out the means to its attainment. From the beginning 
of our political existence we have been assured, that we 
hold our destiny in our own hands; that by the intelli- 
gent use of the ballot we are enabled to undo any 
political wrong. While this is undoubtedly so, our 
voting has so far not shown its beneficent power; 
although we have studied our political literature more, 
than any other nation ; although we have voted at every 
election, from that of Justice of the Peace to that of the 
President of the United States, we have not made much 
headway; on the contrary, the circumstances of the 
poor masses have become worse and worse, the rich 
have become richer, and the poor poorer. In spite of 
all the agitations, which now shake the world; in spite of 
the thousands o. laws annually passed, all the vast sums 
of money, extracted from the people and lavishly spent; 
in spite of all the "eloquent speeches of our inspired 
statesmen and orators, the condition of the masses has 
not improved; on the contrary, poverty is more abject, 
than it ever was, and wealth more condensed. 

In what regard, then, have we failed, and what must 
we do to counteract this state of affairs? We have 
failed by violating the law of the right of the stronger: 
we will annihilate existing evils by returning to com- 
pliance with that law. The few have ruled the many 
and are ruling them yet; this must be reversed. We 
contend, that the political war now raging i s not carried 



EQUAL CHANCES. 99 

on in the interest of labor against capital, South against 
North, intemperance against temperance or people 
against monopoly, it is a contest of the poor against 
the rich; it is the same war, that raged without cessation, 
since the wor d exists ! It is necessary to bear this fact 
in mind; we must know, whom we aie fighting and the 
objects, which we are striving to attain, will present 
themselves. 

So far we have not known our enemy; our leaders, 
who meanwhile reaped golden harvests, have led us 
astray, not only by presenting to our vote false or 
unimportant issues, or by mixing a real improvement 
among a great deal of chaff or detrimental legislation, 
but have also, for purposes of their own, artificially 
divided us into parties, whose objects were identical. 
There is hardly any material difference between the 
two great parties, the only difference being different 
ways of reaching the desired end, viz : to fleece the dear 
people, for whom the leaders profess so much sympathy. 
Having the same object in view, they still carry on a 
war to the knife, not for the purpose of benefitting the 
nation, but to dete mine, to which side belong the 
spoils ! That there exists no great difference between 
the Republican and Democratic parties is shown by the 
fact, that since the change of administration the policy 
of the. government in any essential point has not been 
changed, it being the same as in the days of Grant, 
Hayes, Garfield or A.thur. What then is the use of this 
■continued warfare? If the difference is only in the 
name; if the leading parties cannot present a plan to 
improve cur condition; if they have no remedy to offer 



IOO EQUAL CHANCES. 

to cure our ills, it certainly is about time to abandon 
them and enthrone another party. If the world is pro- 
gressing, but our old parties, to serve their own aims, 
neglect to work for cur prosperity, they do not be'ong 
in our progressive age, but ought to be replaced by 
another, willing to be borne along upon the current 
of our times. Our growing evils demand immediate 
attention, before it becomes too late for a peaceful 
solution, and the sooner we remove artificial oLstruc- 
tions in our path to greater happiness, the better for all ! 

A radical cure of our political evils cannot be accom- 
plished by palliatives or tonics, such as our political 
quacks propose, but only by a return to obedience to 
natural laws : the stronger must rule the weaker. The 
artificial distinctions, which now separate the masses 
into parties and factions, must cease, to allow the peo- 
ple to drift, where they naturally belong. Since states 
first were formed, the;e has been a conflict raging be- 
tween privileged and oppressed, rich and poor, and it is 
now raging fiercely ! If this is the case — and it would 
be hard work to successfully deny it — why have Repub- 
lican and Democratic, Labor or Temperance Parties, 
why can we not express the aims and issues of the 
masses in the name of the party by calling it that of 
the "Poor?" 

No other name can be so expressive of the objects or 
the questions at issue, than the above. We have been 
misled by false issues, by unmeaning or ambiguous party 
names and platforms, which gave great latitude of inter- 
pretation, so that hardly any citizen knew, to which 
party he belonged, to one or other of which he 



EQUAL CHANCES. Ibt 

Tanged himself, not because it represented his ideas, but 
more on account of prejudice. Vagueness and am- 
biguity were needed to blind the people, so as to allow 
the leaders full scope for their designs. Let us now 
have a party, that shows in its name, in whose interests 
it is bound to work, so that upon examination we may 
know, whether we belong to it or its opponent; let us 
have a party, that proudly places upon its banners the 
•one word, "Poor," and around which the legions will 
rally! That banner waving in the morning breeze of 
liberty and 'equal chances, will overcome the indifference 
of the masss; it will penetrate to the cent.r of the 
b ttlefieM and will there be firmly upheld, when mon- 
opoly and oppression writhe in death-agonies! 

There can be no question about the result of the con- 
test, if we can evade the cliffs on which other reform- 
atory parties have suffered or are apt to suffer ship- 
wreck. The Granger Party, organized to procure long- 
delayed justice to the farmer, though victorious in some 
minor points, had to perish, because its basis was not 
large enough to give unlimited sway to the natural law 
of the right of the stronger. Being in the interest of 
only one class, it naturally concentrated as its opposi- 
tion all other classes, who presented the greater powe", 
making the defeat of the Grangers a foregone conclu- 
sion. The Labor Parties for the same reason will never 
govern our political destiny, though they are built upon 
a better foundation than the party before mentioned. 
While all are ac'ually Knights of Labor, who work with 
lands or brain; while with the proper conception of 
the word, "Lahore," a great majority are laborers, 



IO-2 EQUAL CHANCES. 

who naturally belong to the Labor Party, we take a. 
narrower view of the word's meaning; we regard only 
those as laborers, who work for wages by the day, week 
or month, and consequently the farmer, business man, 
small mechanic, or the professional, do not class them- 
selves, where they actually belong, but join the other 
parties. The majority of human beings are not deep 
thinkers; they do not dive below the surface; therefore-, 
in order to be victorious, we must make matters plain, 
and give a plain, natural basis, to make the interests 
of a great, overwhe ming majority identical ; a basis-, 
that without great mental ability or application of it 
enables the masses to determine, where they belong, 
one, that shows upon its face, that upon it may be har- 
monized a great many now seemingly conflicting interests, 
and that promises sure victory for long-needed reforms. 
That basis underlies the Party of the Poor ; the 
inter sts of the poor farmer d > not clash with that of 
the laborer, business man, professional or mechanic, but 
are at least in a great ma;ny regards identical ; therefore 
these classes can unite upon certain legislation; they can 
all stand upon one grand platform of principles, the suc- 
cess of which will prove of benefit to all. No poor man 
of whatever calling for instance,, will object to the down- 
fall of those monopolies, which now oppress us; no 
farmer will cbject to have his produce carried by the 
Government at actual cost, the same as our mail, 
because it is apt to increase his profits as well as the 
consumption of that produce; neither will the eastern 
laborer or mechanic object, because he can afford to 
use more of it and lead a happier life, x\ T o poor man 



FQUAL CHANCES. T03 

of whatever calling will object to a change in our taxa- 
tion laws, which shift the bulk of the burden of taxation 
on the poor man, while tiio rich partly escapes paying 
for the necessary expenses of the state. Every one, who 
-does not derive any benefit from these abuses, must. 
wish to have them abolished, and the success of the Poor 
Party, when once organized, cannot be doubtful; the 
poor have always been in the majority and, owing to 
vicious legislation, are more so now, than they have 
been at former time?. / • 

One of our eastern money- rinces, hearing f the 
death of a C liforuii millionaire, was at the same time 
informed, that the deceased left a fortune of nine mil- 
lions to his heirs. "The poor man!" he exclaimed, "I 
thought him a good deal richer." "Rich" and "poor" 
are expressions, which have a different meaning accord. 
irig to the circumstances of the persons using them; 
whom the possessor of a hundred millions calls poor, the 
possessor of 1 ss wealth calls rich. But there is a way, 
as we have shown in a previous chapter, to ar ive at the 
positive meaning of the two words, by calling a person 
poor, who has li^s wealth than the average per capita 
for every member of his family; that person rich who 
has more. Bv dividing the total wealth of the United 
States by the total number of inhabitants, we have seen, 
that the per capita wealth of every man, woman and 
child amounts to $818.00; then a man with a family of 
wite and three children, who po sesses less than 
$4,090.00 is poor and, to serve his o n interest, ought 
to join the Poor Party, and whoever possesses more, 
may join its opponent. 



104 EQUAL CHANCES. 

We now have natural boundaries instead of artificial 
civ' -ions; a simple name, plainly suggesting the issues 
to be presented and, according to our classification, an 
overwhelming majority on our side. It will not be 
necessary any more to artificially arouse the enthusiasm 
of the voters; assured of victory, they will gladly avail 
themselves of the privilege of voting without a grand 
display of eloquence, without a paid press, without 
torchl ght processions or any other of the means' now 
resorted to. By a simple addition of his wealth minus 
his debts, every voter will know, to which side he be- 
longs. By substituting simplicity for complexity y pre- 
cision for vagueness and ambiguity, truth for falsehood, 
it will be possible for all men of average ability to deter- 
mine, *- M ch party and issues will be of benefit to them 
and by voting according to their convictions, will bene- 
fit all. 

"But," some opponents may say, "your classification 
will introduce pauper rule; it will never do." That 
result is not to be feared, there is not the slightest 
danger of it. Formerly and up to the present lime we 
had three classes, namely, the wealthy, middle and the 
poor; our classificat'on reduces them to two : the wealthy 
and the poor, consolidating the poor and middle class, 
in the latter of which the power will and ought to rest. 
So far every man, who as the result of a life's toil had 
accumulated $100 or $200, sided with a Vanderbilt or 
Gould ; not knowing, where he belonged, he imagined, 
that he would lose by equalization of wealth, and there- 
fore could not possibly form a.i allLnce with the poor 
man who had less than himself or nothing at all. Our 



EQUAL CHANCES. I05 

classificaf'cn removes this, shewing every citizen his 
true position and allies to the poor the great middle 
c : as , which is the stronghold of true conservatism and 
thy cradle of our best talents, while it forces to the 
opposition on'y the we a t y. I shifts the government 
not to the extremely poor, but takes it from the influ- 
ence of the extremely rich, in whose interests it is now 
managed, to give it to tho e, who are able to control 
it, from wh< m the greater part of our greatest men have 
originated, to that class, that give-, every government 
stability. Those, who are not willing to use their 
natural abilities, who claim, that the world owes them a 
living and either starve or do worse, waiting for the 
world to do so, will never rule this or any other country 
permanently, th ugh they may during short periods 
exercise some power by intimidation and murder. Our 
Government is instituted and maintained by the people 
and through the people, and if the people, who are sup- 
posed to be the rulers, cannot be trusted, then the 
foundation of our Government is wrong, and some 
A^iatm despot ought to be invited to come over at once 
and take ho'd of the reins of it. If, instead of a people' j 
Government, this is one of the rieh, by the rich and for 
the rich, then let this be openly acknowledged; then let 
us discard the ideas of those great men, who framed our 
Declaration of Independ nee and Constitution. 

An impoitant factor to success is in the selection of 
cur leaders; we must cease to intrust the care of the 
sheep to wolves. From such unwise practice we can 
reasonably expect no other result, than to see the sheep 
devoured. The interest of the wolve ■ demands perfec: 



Io6 EQUAL CHANCES. 

liberty to eat all the sheep, they want to devour, while 
that of the sheep demands the extinction of the w olves. 
We have <so far entrusted the care of the people to 
bankers and capitalists and we now wonder, how it 
comes about, that the wolves are fat and multiply ng 
and the sheep poor and perishing! The care of the 
poor must be in the hands of the poor, as that of the 
:ich in the hands of the rich; each class being repre- 
sented according to the number of people belonging to 
it, an equilibrium will be established and the interests 
of all guarded upon the just principle of the greatest 
amount of good to the greatest number. 

We have had wolves as shepherds long enough, and 
the poor sheep have suffered in consequence; let 
us now profit by experience and send the wolves back 
to their impenetrable mountain haunts, where they may 
feed among themselves ! Let us discard our old party 
leaders, our professional politicians, who have proven 
themselves incompetent and deaf to the wailings of a 
suffering nation ; let us return our lawyer-legislators to 
the bosoms of their rural constituencies to fatten on 
their petty lawsuits. If we must have lawyers to frame 
our laws, let us have a few of the most eminent in their 
profession as legal committees in our state and national 
legislatures to shape into legal phraseology the common- 
sense bill of the honest Granger or the hard-working 
mechanic. Let us sound the farmer, who is guiding the 
plow, while the sweat pours from his weather-beaten 
face, as to his mental ability, the soundness of his 
judgment and his progressive ideas and, if found to be 
the right man for the place, let us send him to Des 



EQUAL CHANCES. I07 

Moines or Springfield or Albany as our representative 
or state senator. Let us watch yonder laborer, who, 
bhck-faced and with protruding muscles, swings the 
heavy hammer, dropping it with terrific force upon the 
glowing iron and think, how he might drop the power of 
his intellect upon the shrinking metal of his opponents; 
let us f o m his acquaintance, and if the capacity of his 
brain equals that of his muscles, let us send him to 
Washington as the representative of labor! Let us lay 
aside jealousy, hatred and prejudice toward our neigh- 
bors; let us give all the honors at our disposal to those, 
who benefit mankhid by their labor! Instead of reject- 
ing the horny hand of the industrious farmer or the hard- 
working mechanic; instead of regarding the weather- 
beaten brow or the soot-covered features of the iron- 
worker as signs of inferiority or objections, let us look 
up to them as marks of honest, ennobling toil, entitling 
the farmer or laborer to our sympathy and receive them 
as primary tokens of worthiness. Away with your pro- 
fessional politicians, whose only aim is to dupe you in 
order to enrich themselves; whose white hands have 
never done a days labor; who, while professing sympa- 
thy with you, only love themselves ; who only long for 
your esteem because it assists them in elevating them- 
selves above you. Let herea ter the farmer represent 
the farmer, the lawyer his class, and the laborer labor; 
then the sheep will be safe and the wolves scarce. 

The only manner by which conflicting interests can 
be justly harmonized, consists in the selection of the 
leaders and representatives of the masses from their own 
level, from the farm, the workshop or factory; the well- 



108 EQUAL CHANCER. 

fare of the people ought never to be entrusted to any 
one else. Bat even then there is great caution required 
to select the right men. The scum generally rises to 
the top; it formerly has been so and it will be so in the 
future, unless the proper means are resorted to, to guard 
against this result. We must give up our notion, that 
the most eloquent or loudest-mouthed are the most 
proper and eminent men. While eloquence is required 
to mould mind, good, sound common sense is necessary 
to guard against undue enthusiasm produced by elo- 
quence. While we need some great men in our coun- 
c 1-halls to force along the inert, we need comparatively 
more inertia, to restrain the great men. The latter we 
shall never lack; great times will bring out the hidden 
qualities omen; when circumstances are favorable we 
wiU find as many possessing them, as are required to act 
as a ferment. While we need great men and true elo- 
quence, we mostly need such of sound judgment, ration- 
ally progressive ideas, honesty of purpose and of un- 
flinching determination to vanquish wrong and to ac- 
complish what they regard as right. Such men we find 
in all conditions of life; men, who are not afraid to soil 
their hand; with honest toil; men, who do not hug the 
principle that the world owes them a living, but who al- 
ways stand ready and willing to fight for it; men, who, 
instead of vaunting their eloquence to the detriment of 
their fellow-citizens, tend to the happiness and improve- 
ment of themselves and neighbors, and are the best in 
their respective ca lings; men, who show by their acts 
and not by wo.ds, that they can be safely entrusted with 
the honor of guiding their fellow-men and of devising 



EQUAL GHANCES. I09 

means to enhance their moral, mental and material con- 
dition. Keeping this constantly in view, we shall not 
in the future, as we have in the past, be the prey of po- 
litical adventurers, but the reign of these will -be over 
and that of political honesty W*l be inaugurated. 

CHAPTER XV. 

•OBJECTS OF THE POOR PA.RTY. 

Fully recognising the fact, that any new idea can not 
be digested and assimilated by the masses at once, and 
that great reforms are not accomp Lhed in a moment-, 
but require considerable time for their consummation, 
the author does not advocate any immediate effort to 
carry into effect the main object of his work, namely:: 
the abolition of our present inheritance laws and substi- 
tution of others more suitable to our times and advance- 
ment, but submits to h's readers a few reforms, the im- 
portance of which can be readily grasped by the people 
and which-, if carried into effect, would bring us nearer 
to that ideal state, which this work is intended to intro- 
duce. Contrary to the platforms of the old parties, f hat 
of the "Poor " ought to be composed of a few simple 
plank.-, of the merits of which every citizen of average 
ability is able to judge, and only such ought to be ad- 
mitted, which plainly show the certainty to abolish ex- 
isting abuses, which are plainly of benefit to the masses 
and are not apt to encounter any great diversity of 
opinion among them. 

The very first step towards reform must be to return 
to the people the management of its own affairs, to 
wrest it from the hands of professional politicians; this 



I-I-O EQUAL CHANCES- 

can not be accomplished, as long as our present can errs 
system exists- To restore purity m our governmental 
affairs* it becomes eminently necessary to abolish it and 
enact laws- for the purpose of changing our present moder 
of nominating our officers and representatives. In any 
petty lawsuit we object to any jnror r who formed ai 
opinion not likely to be changed except by very strong 
evidence, but in legislation,, affecting the prosperity of at 
nation of sixty millions of people, v/e allow a set of men 
of both parties to call a caucus, which winds the party 7 
chain around its members, binding them to a certain 
action, i respective of th : evidence or arguments later 
brought forward. We boastfully claim, that we are a 
free nation, but we allow a few men to dictate to us,, 
who shall be our law-makers and officers. The caucus 
ought to be prohibited by law and our nominating con- 
ventions be replaced by a nominating election, at which 
every voter gives his secret ballot to the man of his 
choice ; those who receive the highest number of votes 
become nominees of the people,, and as such are subject 
to the regular election, which decides their fate. Such 
an arrangement would take the power out of the hands 
of political tricksters, returning it to the people, to whom 
it belongs. 

Natural talents, while benefitting their possessors, are 
also of great utility to the nation, to the world at large - 
it therefore follows, that it is wisdom on the par,t of the 
state, to enact laws to promote their fullest development 
and to prevent the waste of talent. We favor such leg- 
islation, as will not only compel attendance in our com- 
mon schools, but will a 1 so force the county or state to 



KQUAL CHANCES. lit 

fmnish the 'means for higher education to the indigent 
boy or girl, who by the test of impartial examination is 
found to surpass in ability his or her schoolmates. 

Railroads should not be controlled by legislati n in 
regard to rates, but be entirely managed by the people 
or government, for the people, and transportation be 
furnished at actual cost, the same as the transmiss on of 
anail-matter. Our mail system undoubtedly is a succes ; 
and wherever a government owns and operates railroad ■•, 
Me find them in a better condition th n where handled 
by individuals, and accidents hardly ever happen. The 
■a in of corporations is to make money; for this reason 
producers as well as consumers are 'compelled to pay 
tribute to railroad kings: necessities of life are unneces- 
sarily increased in price and life and limb of travelers 
endangered. The government, not aiming at profit, but 
at the convenience, prosperity and afety of its people, 
would furnish transportation of frc'ght and passengers at 
cost, thereby enabling the consumer in all sections of 
the country to obtain goods cheaper'; milbons of money, 
now concentrated in the hands of a few men, would re- 
main in thosi of the industrious toilers, thereby promot- 
ing greater equality and preventing immense accumula- 
tions; the greatest possible safety would be insu: ed, as 
mercenary motives wouM not prevent the construction 
of the best road-beds:or the erection of more solid struct- 
ures, than were so far in use, stone and iron taking the 
place of wood. Our agricultural, commercial and in- 
dustrial interests and humanity demand a change. Ac- 
cidents, in which dozens cf human beings suffer a horri- 
ble death or mutilation, and many of which with proper 



112 EQUAL CHANCER 

precautions and proper structures might be avoided 1 ,, 
ought to prompt tis in hastening the advent of this re- 
form; no consideration whatever is paramount to this. 

The main objection to the management of railroads 
by the government is centralization of power by the 
great increase of government officers required; an ad- 
dition of a great many thousands of them, it is feared r 
would give too much power to the ruling party. Are 
immense power is now centered in a few men r who are 
lesponsible to nobody but themselves, controlled by 
nothing but their own elastic conscience; transferred to 
the government it would become subject to the will of 
the 7 eople, who wonld hold its officers to strict account; 
cei ralization would be, where it belongs, in the people, 
the source or all power. We would return to obedience 
to our often mentioned natural law, which would not fail 
to benefit us. Civil Service Reform, carried out in good 
faith, would remove the danger of too great party sta- 
bility. Our now existing laws in this respect must be 
strictly enforced and perfected by more stringent legis- 
lation. 

Another objection is, that we have no right to take 
away the railroads from their present possessors. We 
grant this, but claim, without fear of being contradicted, 
that the people or the government have as much right 
to build and operate railroads as individuals. Why can 
not we use the much talked-of surplus to buy as many 
as it will purchase, adding from time to time according 
to our means? In order to purchase them at a proper 
cost, it would only be necessary to offer what experts 
would call a fair price lor a line, and in case of declina- 



EQUAL CHANCES. 113 

tion on the part of the proprietors, to construct a line as 
nearly parallel as possible and run it at cost. This pol- 
icy being followed would produce the result of forcing 
our railroad kings to terms and of convincing them that 
it would be best to let Uncle Sam have the exclusive 
privilege of running all railroads. 

The more issues are presented in the platform of any 
party, the more dissension of opinion there is apt to be; 
we therefore, in conclusion, only offer one more, but 
that one of the utmost importance, viz : a graduated tax 
on property, at first at least sufficient to make the pos- 
session of millions undesirable by making them unre- 
munerative. The idea of a graduated tax on income is 
an old one; it has been considerably discussed, incor- 
porated in platforms and even practically experimented 
upon, but has been shown to be totally impractical and 
oppressive, it being impossible to determine the income 
of any one. With proper laws the tax on property 
cannot be evaded. The concentration of millions in 
one pair of lands is an injury to the possessor as well 
as to the world at large ; and, if such is the case, it is 
right and proper, that we should legislate the millions 
out of existence by a taxation heavy enough to prevent 
them from being a seeming benefit to their possessor. 
The first step then to prevent the accumulation of large 
fortunes would be to tax them to such an extent, as to 
make them a burden during life-time; the next to pre- 
vent their transmission to heirs after death. 

These two reforms united would undoubtedly accom- 
plish the desired end, but even a graduated tax on 
property alone would bring us a great deal nearer tu 



114 EQUAL CHANCES. 

equal chances, by preventing great accumulations and 
by remov ng part of the artificial value of wealth. Any 
step in this direction must be of benefit to mankind; 
any plan to accomplish it ought to be hailed with 
delight and carried into execution. Adherence to the 
now prevailing undue value of wealth means poverty, 
misery, wretchedness to all; comparatively slow pro- 
gress in all directions ; discontent, revolution and wars ; 
more intemperance, sickness and earlier death; degra- 
dation of man as well as woman; its overthrow means 
plenty and happiness; a more rapid progress, than the 
world ever experienced; quietness and contentment; 
more temperance, less sickness and longer life; stronger 
men and healthier women; it means happiness to man- 
kind and heralds the advent of the millennium. 



C 219 89-.* 




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HECKMAN 

BINDERY INC. 

AUG 89 






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